USTDA, 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131

B -- PHILIPPINES: REAL TIME GROSS SETTLEMENT (RTGS) SYSTEM DUE 021100 POC Evangela Kunene, USTDA, 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009 The Grantee invites submission of Prequalification Statements from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to develop a feasibility study for for a configuration study on the computer upgrade of the existing national payments systems of the Central Bank of the Philippines. Based upon the Prequalification Statements, the Grantee will develop a short list of qualified firms which will be invited in writing to submit a formal Technical Proposal to carry out the study. TDA has provided a technical assistance grant to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the conduct of Phase I Study for the upgrade of the existing payment system to a full scale national Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to service Metro Manila and the 30 regional offices/units. The BSP is the Philippine Central Monetary Authority. It was established to provide policy directions in the areas of money, banking and credit and to have supervision over the operations of banks and exercise such regulatory powers as may be provided by law over the operations of finance companies and other institutions performing similar functions. The BSP administers the national payments system and serves as the settlement bank for these transactions through reserve deposits maintained by banks. The Configuration Study will identify the business and technical architecture requirements of a RTGS system in BSP's current and future environment as well as evaluate potential check clearing systems that are compatible with the RTGS solution and that include the latest technology on check imaging and check truncation. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $122,000 grant to the Grantees from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes the requirements for submission of the Prequalification Statements and the Technical Proposal, the Terms of Reference, and a background desk study report are available from TDA, at 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, TDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm's name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want TDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to TDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to TDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, TDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling TDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this TDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under TDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the TDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the TDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from host country for up to 20 percent of the TDA grant amount. Details of TDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Prequalification Statements as outlined in the RFP in English directly to the Grantee by 5:00PM, February 11, 2000 at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Prequalification Statements and the Technical Proposals are included in the RFP. Price will NOT be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The Grantee reserves the right to reject any and/or all Prequalification Statements or Technical Proposals. The Grantee also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The Grantee is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals.****** Posted 01/20/00 (W-SN417137). (0020)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0007 20000124\B-0002.SOL)