Overview
The Government of the Republic in Suriname (GOS) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in an amount equivalent to EUR 297,452 towards the cost of “Marketing and branding of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in CARICOM” project and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this financing to eligible payments under a contract for which this invitation is issued. Payments by CDB will be made only at the request of GOS and upon approval by CDB, and will be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions of the Financing Agreement. The Financing Agreement prohibits withdrawal from the financing account for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, or for any import of goods, if such payment or import, to the knowledge of CDB, is prohibited by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. No party other than GOS shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing.
The Competitiveness Unit of Suriname (CUS), the Implementing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services for the conduct of Market Research and Development of Promotional, Branding and Export Strategies for Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Suriname.
The objective of the consultancy is to undertake market research with the view of developing marketing, branding and export strategies for up to 60 MSMEs across various economic sub-sectors; establish the creation of digital assets to increase the visibility of MSME firms while building capacity within CUS to attain market intelligence of Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Further details can be found in the attached Terms of Reference. The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of 300 days over a period of 17 months.
The CUS now invites interested eligible consulting firms to submit Expressions of Interest for the provision of these consultancy services.
Eligibility
Consultants shall be eligible to participate if:
- in the case of a body corporate, it is legally incorporated or otherwise organized in an eligible country, has its principal place of business in an eligible country and is more than 50 percent beneficially owned by citizen(s) and/or bona fide resident(s) of an eligible country(ies) or by a body(ies) corporate meeting these requirements;
- in the case of unincorporated firms, the persons are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country;
- in all cases, the consultant has no arrangement and undertakes not to make any arrangements, whereby any substantial part of the net profits or other tangible benefits of the contract will accrue or be paid to a person not a citizen or bona fide resident of an eligible country.
In addition, consultants from member countries of CDB, as well as EU Member Countries that are not CDB Member Countries, and other countries which are eligible under EU procurement provisions, will be eligible to participate in these procurement opportunities.[1] Consultants are advised to review the detailed eligibility criteria detailed in Section 4 and conflict of interest provisions in Section 5 of the Procurement Procedures for Projects Financed by CDB (January 2021), as published on CDB’s website.
See eligible countries listed in the European Commission Directorate-General for International Partnerships, Contract procedures for European Union external action Annex A2a1
https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/download/attachments/44168960/a2a1_ecprogrammes_eligibility2021_2027_en.docxhttps
Instructions
In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to technical competence, qualifications and experience, and local and regional experience on similar assignments and existing commitments. Key Experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage.
All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from the first address below between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (Suriname time) Monday to Friday.
An electronic copy of the Expressions of Interest must be sent in PDF format to the email in the first address below no later than 4:30 p.m. (Suriname time) on November 25, 2022 and one electronic copy must be sent simultaneously to CDB at the second address below. The Expression of Interest will be deemed to have been received at the time that it is received by CUS at the first email address below. The burden of proving receipt of the e-mail will be on the applicant and will not be met solely by a read receipt or sent items report generated by the Consultant’s computer. The e-mail containing each submission should include the name and address of the applicant. The subject line shall be clearly marked “Expression of Interest – Consultancy Services for Market Research and Development of Promotional, Branding and Export Strategies for MSMEs in Suriname.”
Following the assessment of submissions, a short list of not less than three and not more than six applicants will be provided with full terms of reference and invited to submit technical and financial proposals to undertake the assignment. GOS reserves the right to accept or reject late applications or to cancel the present invitation partially or in its entirety. It will not be bound to assign any reason for not short-listing any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.
Contact
1. Address
Amit Chandansingh
Competitiveness Unit in Suriname
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Entrepreneurship
and Technological Innovation
Paramaribo Suriname
South America
2. Address
Procurement Policy Unit
Caribbean Development Bank
P. O. Box 408
Wildey
St. Michael
Barbados, WI BB11000