OVERVIEW

The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GOTT) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in an amount equivalent to €161,590 towards the Project Developing the Export Readiness of Trinidad and Tobago Companies for the European Union (EU) Market (Fit 4 Europe II)” 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 GOTT 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 GOTT shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing.

ExporTT Limited, the Executing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services for a Consultant Firm to develop the export readiness of Trinidad and Tobago’s Companies for the EU Market.

The objective of the consultancy is to provide technical leadership, research and advice in the implementation of a project that aims to improves the export-readiness of Trinidad and Tobago companies for the EU markets.  The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of 15 to 18 months.

exporTT 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:

1. in the case of a body corporate, it is legally incorporated or otherwise organised in an eligible country, has its principal place of business in an eligible country and is more than 50 per cent beneficially owned by citizen(s) and/or bona fide resident(s) of eligible country(ies) or by a body(ies) corporate meeting these requirements;
    
2. in the case of unincorporated firms, the persons are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country; and
    
3. 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.

Eligible countries are member countries of CDB.[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:

https://www.caribank.org/sites/default/files/publication-resources/201223%20Revised%20CDB%20Procurement%20Procedures%20Final.pdf

In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to technical competence, qualifications and experience, local and regional experience on similar assignments, financial capability and existing commitments.

Consulting firm with the following expertise:

1. Key Expert 1 – Market Access Consultant (Goods); and

1. Key Expert 2 – Market Access Consultant (Services).

Further details outlined in Terms of Reference.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 5.15 and 5.17 of Procurement Procedures for Projects Financed by CDB (2021), setting forth CDB’s policy on conflict of interest for the selection of consultants.

[1] Occasionally contracts may be financed out of special programs that would further expand or restrict eligibility to a particular group of member countries. When this is the case, it should be mentioned in this paragraph.

INSTRUCTIONS

All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from the first address below between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm Trinidad and Tobago 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 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday August 31, 2022 and one electronic copy must be sent simultaneously to CDB at the second email address below. The Expression of Interest will be deemed to have been received at the time that it is received by TTBS 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 Developing the Export Readiness of Trinidad and Tobago Companies for the European Union Market”.

The selection method shall be Consultants’ Qualifications selection. 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. exporTT 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 inform or assign any reason for not selecting any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.