SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICAN GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS HUB
- Notice Date
- 4/4/2003
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Agency for International Development, Overseas Missions, Kenya USAID-Nairobi, Unit #64102, APO, AE, 09831-4102
- ZIP Code
- 09831-4102
- Solicitation Number
- 623-03-014
- Archive Date
- 5/6/2003
- Point of Contact
- Tadeusz Findeisen, Contracting Officer, Phone 011-254-2-862-400, Fax 011-254-2-860-861, - Anthony Muthee, Acquisition Specialist , Phone 254-2-862400, Fax 254-2-860949,
- E-Mail Address
-
tfindeisen@usaid.gov, pmuthee@usaid.gov
- Description
- East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Hub (ECA Hub) activities form part of the U.S. Government's Trade for African Development and Enterprise (TRADE) Initiative. The TRADE Initiative seeks to mobilize U.S. and African partners from the public and private sectors to support specific trade capacity building needs. Three regional Hubs have been established in Accra, Ghana; Gaborone, Botswana; and Nairobi, Kenya. The Trade Hubs facilitate capacity building activities through linkages with African regional trade organizations and networks, in collaboration with U.S. and African educational and business networks, U.S. and African government agencies, and other donors. The TRADE Initiative has six themes, namely to: " Enhance the competitiveness of East and Central African (ECA) products and services; " Expand the role that trade can play in African poverty reduction strategies; " Promote U.S.- ECA business linkages; " Improve the delivery of public services supporting trade; " Strengthen ECA capacity for trade policy formulation and implementation; and " Strengthen the enabling environment for ECA businesses. Based in Nairobi, the ECA Hub covers Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The contractor for the ECA Hub will be required to work with the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), a principal partner to REDSO based in Lusaka, Zambia, and the Transit Transport Coordinating Authority of the Northern Corridor (TTCA) based in Mombasa, Kenya. Other partners will be engaged in as far as their activities promote COMESA agenda of creating a common market where goods, services and people move freely using standards adopted from the World Trade Organization. The ECA Hub will ensure that trade between Africa and the U.S is promoted under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). Promoting efficient customs facilitation will be important to ensure seamless movement of goods from one country to another. Enterprise capacity building and linkages for the export market will be another area of concern. The Northern Corridor from Mombasa to Democratic Republic of Congo) will act as a fast track model for all the activities the Hub will implement in the region. In summary, to achieve the objectives of the TRADE Initiative through the ECA Hub, USAID/REDSO is pursuing improvements in four key areas: " Building capacity for trade policy formulation and implementation with specific emphasis on the World Trade Organization and COMESA; " Promoting business development and market linkages under the African Growth and Opportunity Act; " Harmonizing customs and trade facilitation policies for the countries (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) covered under the Hub taking the Northern Corridor countries as the model; " Increasing efficiency and reducing the cost of trade related transportation on the Northern Corridor and creating an operating model for replication by other interested parties in other corridors. The ECA Hub was opened in October 2002, and the first year of operations is being implemented under a one year, $1.5 million contract between USAID/REDSO and Chemonics International. The work plan for the first year of the ECA Hub will be provided with the RFP. The soon to be issued RFP for the ECA Hub will require a firm to implement this activity from the second to the fifth year (four-year performance period) starting in late September 2003. The RFP document will be posted to FBO approximately (15-19) days from this Synopsis posting. The Solicitation number will be RFP: 623-03-014. No additional notice will be given concerning the RFP Solicitation date of issuance/posting. Once the RFP Solicitation is posted to http://www.fbo.gov/ website, this will allow you to view/download/print the document to prepare your submission, if your organization decides to submit a proposal. The RFP Solicitation will also identify the government website(s) to view/download/print any forms which must be used by offerors submitting a proposal. The Office issuing the RFP Solicitation will NOT mail forms or hard RFP copies out. The Cover Letter to the RFP Solicitation will advise that there will be approximately (15) calendar days from the RFP issuance date allowed for the electronic submission of questions about any Section of the RFP document. Approximately week later, the USAID will post to http://www.fbo.gov/ answers to all questions by issuing an Amendment to the RFP Solicitation. Questions submitted after (15) day period may be answered (and, possibly, another Amendment may need to be issued) however, extending the RFP's closing date is NOT considered.
- Place of Performance
- Address: REDSO/ESA, P.O. BOX 30261, NAIROBI
- Zip Code: 00100
- Country: KENYA
- Zip Code: 00100
- Record
- SN00295293-W 20030406/030404213034 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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