Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

Spreading the G.O.L.D.: U.S. to Spark Small Biz Growth

Small businesses soon can expect a boost of support from the Obama Administration, which is launching the Growth Oriented Local Development, or GOLD, program -- in the Southeastern European nation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last week alerted vendors to potential program-contracting opportunities via a presolicitation notice that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located during routine database research.

Despite an end to civil war fifteen years ago -- and in spite of about $8 billion in post-conflict, international donor support -- that nation continues to lag "behind its neighbors’ political and economic progress," USAID says in its Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2012-2016 (.pdf, 18 MB).

The "overarching objective" of the U.S. "is to help a stable, prosperous, sovereign, democratic, and multi-ethnic BiH become fully integrated into Euro-Atlantic institutions (the EU and NATO)." Critical to achieving U.S. foreign policy objectives are programs centering on "youth, civil society, empowering women, and inter-ethnic reconciliation," the strategy indicates.

USAID will issue a formal Request for Proposals for the GOLD project around Feb. 15. The agency said in a presolicitation notice that it expects to jointly fund the program in conjunction with the Swedish International Development Agency, or SIDA.

USAID stated, albeit vaguely, several project goals including:

Improving local economic development management capacity;

Spurring economic activity through increased public-private partnerships;

Strengthening private sector capacity, "resulting in increased skill levels of employees in the private sector and an increase in the number of local supply chain networks and the economic value they generate."

USAID did not disclose GOLD's estimated cost.

Source document: Solicitation #SOL-168-13-000002.

FOR FURTHER REPORTING ON THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.

Obama Administration will Seek to Encourage Business Investments -- in the Philippines

A U.S.-funded program whose aim is to “address the constraints that impede the overall business climate of the Philippines and consequently improve levels of investments in the country” is on the horizon. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to launch the 2-3 year endeavor, known as the Investment Enabling Environment (INVEST) Project, so that it can help make “regulations less cumbersome” for Philippine business owners.

USAID ultimately intends to accomplish that task by lowering the cost of compliance with -- and “limiting the scope” of -- excessive bureaucratic oversight, according to a presolicitation notice (#SOL-492-11-000011) that the Monitor located via routine database research.

The primary “reform-oriented components” of the INVEST Project will be:

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.

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.

Launching the program will be “contingent upon the availability of funds,” the document says. If and when those funds become available, USAID apparently will be poised to award a contract to a hand-picked vendor, as it made clear that the agency will seek “approval of a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition.”

USAID did not provide an estimated cost of the INVEST project.

Small Businesses Receive Yet Another Boost from Washington

Another small-business support project is about to be unveiled by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—this time in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in southeastern Europe.

While the endeavor is significantly smaller than other overseas small-business programs financed by U.S. taxpayers, it comes at a time when USAID is embarking upon other—and bigger—related initiatives. As the Monitor recently reported, for instance, the agency increased to $73 million the Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality (SABEQ) project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. (Monitor, May 16, 2011: Small-Business Initiative Gains Momentum, More Money)

Macedonia Regional Small Business Development, or MRSBD, as the new project is known, involves the anticipated awarding of a $5 million contract to a U.S. firm. According to a Request for Proposals (#SOL-165-11-000004), the selected contractor will provide:

[T]echnical assistance and/or services contributing toward local economic development and job creation through strengthening the micro, small and medium enterprises with growth potential. The proposed project will build upon USAID‘s prior activities related to private sector growth, competitiveness, microenterprise support and microfinance provided over the past fifteen years.

Search of a federal procurement database show that USAID has led numerous prior small business initiatives in Macedonia, including a $9.2 million contract (Award #165-C-00-07-00101-00) in 2007 to CARANA Corporation—an Arlington, Va., firm whose management team is composed largely of former USAID officials and staffers. CARANA was tasked with carrying out the Macedonia Competitiveness for the 21st Century project, or MacComp-21, to “help Macedonia improve its competitive position within the global market place.”

The stated reasons for U.S. support to Macedonia are many, several of which are represented in the following excerpt from a FY 2009 U.S. State Dept. foreign aid statement:

The U.S. Government (USG)’s overarching foreign assistance goal is to build and sustain a more democratic Macedonia that is more fully integrated into European and Euro-Atlantic structures, and able to contribute to the stability of the western Balkans. Sector-specific foreign assistance goals include strengthening Macedonian law enforcement and military organizations; addressing corruption and improving the performance of the judiciary; increasing the ability of the Macedonian educational system to produce a workforce for today’s economy; and increasing business growth, investment, and exports.

The previously mentioned small business-related procurements represent just a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the U.S. government has provided to or “invested” into Macedonia over the past decade and half, a review of contracting documents and awards indicate.

Likewise, the bulk of this aid—which has come from USAID as well as multiple U.S. defense, trade, education, and law enforcement entities—has flowed particularly since Macedonia began hosting U.S. and NATO troops that support operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region.