USAID Mission to India,Regional Contracting Office, c/o American Embassy, New Delhi, Department of Sate, Washington, D.C. 20521-9000

R -- FINANCIAL INSTITUTION REFORM AND EXPANSION PROJECT-PHASE II-386-0531 SOL RFP 386-99-001 DUE 031699 POC Contact Point: Satish Kumar, Contracting Specialist, skumar@usaid.gov and John May, RCO, john@usaid.gov, Tel: 91-11-686-5301 ext. 2232 and 2242, Fax: 91-11-686-8352 USAID/India, under the second phase of its Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion Project, is soliciting proposals for a Management Support Services contract with U.S. organizations or a consortium of organizations who have a proven track record in providing technical assistance and training in the development of a framework -- regulatory and institutional-and project development approaches for the delivery of urban environmental infrastructure services such as urban water supply, sewerage systems, and solid waste collection and disposal that are efficient, provided on a commercially viable basis, and improve the access of the urban poor to these basic services. The first phase of the FIRE project helped urban administrators, technical and financial specialists, and community-based entities understand and apply important concepts such as: commercial viability, public-private partnership, and credit ratings and municipal bonds. The FIRE project assisted India s credit rating agencies develop a methodology for rating municipal bonds and helped the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation successfully issue $25 million in municipal bonds, the first such case in South Asia, to help finance the city s environmental infrastructure projects. The second phase will build on the gains made so far in the existing four cities (Ahmedabad, Tiruppur, Pune, and Vijaywada), putting special emphasis on improving access to environmental infrastructure services by the urban poor. The contractor will expand program demonstration initiatives in three more cities and will provide technical assistance and training support to an expanded set of financial intermediaries, policy research and training organizations, debt market development related -2- institutions, NGOs, and Community-based Organizations (CBOs) that will engage selected state and local governments in the development of: (1) city-wide systems to enable efficient delivery of commercially viable urban environmental infrastructure services; (2) responsive municipal finance systems; and (3) an urban management training network. Detailed information about this solicitation is contained in the solicitation documents. The estimated closing date is March 16, 1999. To obtain the RFP, please send your E-mail request to skumar@usaid.gov or request that a copy be mailed by sending your Fax request to SATISH KUMAR, USAID/New Delhi, at 91-11-686 8594. The preferred method of distribution of USAID procurement information is via the Internet or by request of a solicitation on a 3.5" floppy disk (WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 format). This CBD notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Web Site. The RFP, once issued, can be downloaded from the Agency web site. The Worldwide Web address is http://www.info.usaid.gov. Select Business and Procurement Opportunities from the home page, then "USAID Procurements." On the following screen, select "Download Available USAID Solicitations." The RFP can also be downloaded via Anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The FTP address is FTP.INFO.USAID.GOV. Logon using the user identification of "anonymous" and the password is your e-mail address. Look under the following directory for the RFP: pub/OP/RFP/ RFP38699001 Receipt of this RFP through INTERNET must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this solicitation document to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes. Posted 01/07/99 (I-SN286102). (0007)

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