Della Glenn, USTDA, 1621 North Kent Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22209-2131, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009

B -- MEXICO INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS CONFERENCE BRIEFING BOOK POC Della Glenn, USTDA, 1621 North Kent Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22209-2131, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009 The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA) wishes to announce a Competitive Total Set-Aside for a Small Business to provide services related to the identification of infrastructure projects in Mexico and the preparation of a briefing book. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency seeks to identify not less than 50 public and private sector infrastructure projects in Mexico in the transportation, energy, environment, telecommunications, and industrial sectors. The project identification process will target projects which are expected to offer significant business opportunities for U.S. exporters and investors and which are already at the implementation stage and/or expected to be implemented within 1-3 years. The result will be a briefing book that contains detailed project profiles for each of the projects identified; a report that analyzes Mexico's economic, financial, and business climate; analysis of issues, government policies and trends for each of the sectors represented (transportation, energy, environment, telecommunications, and industrial); and case studies representative of infrastructure projects in Mexico. The briefing book will be presented at a TDA-sponsored conference to be held in November 1998 in Mexico. The conference will include the sponsors or representatives of these projects, whose participation in the conference will be confirmed by the consultant during the process of project identification. TDA is seeking to meet this objective by contracting the services of a specialized contractor. TDA's specialized contractor will be required to identify not less than 50 infrastructure projects, acceptable to TDA, in the transportation, energy, environment, telecommunications and industrial sectors; and develop detailed profiles of these projects which together with the report on Mexico's economic, financial, and business climate, sectorial analysis, and case studies will be compiled into a briefing book to be distributed to U.S. firms at a TDA-sponsored business conference. The briefing book will contain, as a minimum: 1) a report on Mexico's economic, financial, and business climate; 2) analysis of issues, government policies, and trends in the sectors represented (transportation, energy, environment, telecommunications, industrial); 3) project profiles for each of the 50 projects, which will contain, as a minimum, a detailed description of the project and information on the site, timing, equipment and services demand, identification of what is needed to make the project move forward, a financial assessment, and the identification of key decision-makers; 4) case studies (not less than five) representative of successful projects that have been or are in the process of being implemented; 5) an equipment database (index), in which projects will be referenced according to equipment categories to assist suppliers in identifying which projects are of most interest to them. During the course of project identification, the contractor will be required to solicit and confirm participation of an appropriate project representative (project sponsor), acceptable to TDA, for each project to participate in the conference. Each project sponsor will be expected to cover his/her air fare to the conference site and TDA will cover all conference costs for project sponsors. The formal invitation will be issued by TDA, but the contractor will coordinate the distribution of the invitation letters. The contractor will provide 400 copies of the briefing book and deliver them to the site of the TDA business conference in Mexico. Contractor selection will be based on: (1) Presentation of work plan that clearly and concisely demonstrates an understanding of TDA's requirements and that presents a methodology and schedule for project identification and preparation of the briefing book, including the proposed format for project profiles and an outline for country and sector reports. (2) Demonstration of superior technical and analytical writing skills in English; (3) Competence and Availability of Proposed Personnel -- proposed personnel will be evaluated on the breadth and depth of their experience in performing work similar or relevant to the scope of work and ability to complete the assignment in a timely manner. (4) Demonstration of entrepreneurial achievements in project identification, development, financing, and closing; (5) Demonstration of experience in Mexico, including contacts and direct or correspondent offices in Mexico; (6) Demonstration of written and oral command of Spanish sufficient to correspond and conduct technical/business meetings with potential project sponsors and other Mexican officials. TDA, located in the Washington, D.C. area, is a commercially-oriented U.S. Government export promotion agency that helps U.S. companies pursue overseas business opportunities. Through the funding of feasibility studies, orientation visits, business conferences, training grants, and technical assistance, TDA enables American businesses to become involved in the planning stage of infrastructure and industrial projects in middle-income and developing countries. The Small Business Act, at 15 U.S.C. 644, authorizes procuring agencies to set aside procurements or portions of procurements for the exclusive participation of Small Business Concerns. The SIC Code for this procurement is 8748 -Business Consulting Services, N.E.C. This procurement may exceed the small purchase dollar limitation of $100,000. Definition: "Small business concerns" for purposes of TDA award of this total set aside contract means a concern, including its affiliates, that is independently owned and operated, not dominant in the field of operation for which it is bidding. In determining whether dominance exists for TDA's purpose for this contract, consideration is given to annual gross receipts. Any concern that has annual gross receipts above $5 million dollars, averaged over a three year period, is not considered small and is therefore, NOT eligible for award under this contract. All participating organizations involved with supplying professional services mustbe incorporated or chartered in the United States. Consultants planning teaming arrangements must be U.S. citizens or resident aliens. In accordance with FAR 19.301, offerors will be required to submit self certification relating to business size. The competitive proposals method of solicitation as set forth in Part 15 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) (48 CFR Chapter 1) shall be utilized for this procurement. This solicitation in no way obligates TDA to award a contract, nor does it commit TDA to pay any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Any explanation desired by an offeror regarding the meaning or interpretation of this solicitation must be requested in writing and with sufficient time allowed for reply to reach the offerors before submission of their offers. All oral explanations or instruction, given before award of this contract will not be binding. Any information given to a prospective offeror concerning the solicitation will be furnished promptly to all prospective offerors as an amendment of the solicitation, if such information is necessary to offerors submitting proposals or if lack of such information would be prejudicial to uninformed offerors. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued (15) fifteen days after the publication date of this synopsis. Closing date will be twenty one (21) days thereafter. Only written requests for the RFP that indicate the businesses size will be honored. U.S. eligible small businesses interested in receiving the RFP should send a fax requesting it to Della Glenn at (703) 875-4009 or a letter by U.S. mail or courier to Ms. Glenn at U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA), Contracts Unit, 1621 N. Kent Street, Room 300, Rosslyn, VA 22209. Telephonic requests, other than fax will not be accepted. (0121)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0014 19980506\B-0001.SOL)