Request for Information - Advancing Commerce, Connectivity, and Exports Leading to Economic Readiness for Accession to the EU - ACCELERATE Activity

FAR 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997) (a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. (c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of: market research. (End of provision) Pursuant to FAR 52.215-3 - Request for Information (RFI), the United States Government represented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is seeking feedback on contractors capabilities to fulfill the requirements outlined in the draft Statement of Objectives (SOO) (copy attached to this notice for the E&E Bureau Office of Economic Growth ACCELERATE Activity). The activity will be authorized to implement activities in the following countries: Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Montenegro, and Belarus. The estimated budget is $80 million, subject to availability of funding and subject to all internal approvals. It is anticipated that the funding for common base programming will be $30 million and $50 million will be available for country-specific and regional or sub-regional buy-ins. The structure of the activity will allow for flexibility in utilizing the mechanism and applying funds, as appropriate for both base and tailored programming interventions. In addition, the mechanism will also include a Grants Under Contract (GUC) fund of $10 million applicable to both core and buy-in funds to leverage resources from the private sector, other partners and donors to achieve common objectives. Grants will be available for multi-country and country-specific activities and the amounts will be decided on a case-by-case basis. The Government is requesting the following from interested parties: 1. Respondents' company background and prior overseas experience working with host governments and/or their respective civilian agencies in the E&E region not to exceed two (2) pages. Please do not include company brochures and general information not relevant or applicable to this particular Activity. Respondents should include the following information: Company Name Company address Company Point of Contact (phone and email address) Company Business Size (i.e. Small Business or Large Business), if small business, what socioeconomic status, if applicable Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) SAM registration status 2. Interested Parties prior experience and capabilities related to the technical areas below. These technical areas correspond to the objectives laid out in the ACCELERATE SOO (see Attachment 1). The proposed experience should address work in the E&E region. The responses should not exceed three (3) pages. a. Trade Facilitation: Describe prior experience relating to improved trade facilitation (e.g., reduce time and cost of goods crossing borders). b. Access to Finance: Describe prior experience providing alternative financial products outside of the traditional banking sector. c. EU Accession: Describe prior experience furthering Europe and Eurasian countries alignment with EU regulations and standards. d. Investment Transparency: Describe prior experience improving investment transparency, with particular focus on public procurement modernization and meeting EU requirements in this area. e. Digital Modernization: Describe prior experience implementing technology and digital solutions to facilitate the technical areas listed above. Respondents are not required to address all of these areas, but are encouraged to respond to any and all area(s) for which they have capabilities or experience. Please organize your responses to correspond to the order of this list. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes, and so it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP), a Request for Quotation (RFQ), an Invitation for Bids (IFB), or a Solicitation. Responses to this RFI are not proposals and will in no way be deemed to form any binding agreement with the RFI issuing authority. Not responding to this request does not preclude participation in future solicitation, if such is issued. Responses to this RFI will not be returned, and respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. There will be no debrief or evaluation letter to responders. It is the potential contractor's responsibility to monitor the site for the release of any further information. It should be noted that responding to this RFI will not give any advantage to any organization in any subsequent procurement. This RFI does not restrict the Government's approach on a future Solicitation. Information from this RFI may lead to one-on-one market research discussions and other recommended approaches to industry engagement. Interested parties wishing to respond to this request must submit their response via email, in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat formats are acceptable. Please email responses to: Viktoria Stott Hollosy at vhollosy@usaid.gov and to Abdissa Workneh at aworkneh@usaid.gov no later than the closing date as referenced above. Please reference the subject title - Contractor's Name, Response to RFI No. 7200AA24RFI00005." Thank you for your interest in partnering with USAID to deliver development technical assistance. Sincerely, Viktoria Stott Hollosy Contracting Officer M/OAA/RM/AEM Attachment 1: Draft Statement of Objective - ACCELERATE