Presolicitation Notice for the INVEST Project

The purpose of this notice is to comply with the synopses and presolicitation notice requirements of FAR 5.2 - Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. Any solicitation resulting from this notice will be handled in accordance with FAR 5.102(d); therefore, availability of any resulting solicitation package will be limited to this electronic medium.

Pending approval of a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition and subject to availability of funds, the United States Agency for International Development Mission to the Philippines (USAID/Philippines) intends to issue a request for proposal (RFP) to local firms in order to select a contractor to implement the Investment Enabling Environment (INVEST) Project. The INVEST Project is a 2 years plus 1 option year project that will address the constraints that impede the overall business climate of the Philippines and consequently improve levels of investments in the country. The project will focus technical assistance on making regulations less cumbersome for business, lowering cost of compliance and limiting the scope for bureaucratic discretion. It will concentrate on and work directly with a limited number of cities outside of the National Capital Region, to be selected based on a predetermined set of criteria. 

The INVEST Project will have two key reform-oriented components:

•1)      Streamlining business registration process and lowering business transaction costs of compliance with rules and regulations. The overall objective of this component is to reduce the steps, time and costs (both official and non-official) that business operators in the targeted cities spend interfacing with national government agencies and local governments to obtain business permits or to renew them.

•2)      Improving investment planning and promotion in targeted cities. The overall objective of this component is to facilitate the entry of new business ventures that will generate employment and increase revenues for local governments.