The Department for International Trade is now conducting a market engagement exercise to elicit market views on aspects of design, to discuss challenges and opportunities and assess market capability and appetite.

The feedback obtained will be used to shape the procurement strategy.

Expressions of interest are now invited from potential providers who are content to participate in the market engagement exercise.

This notice does not formally bind The Department for International Trade to proceed with any procurement exercises and is purely for market engagement purposes.

In the event that the Department for International Trade decides to proceed with any procurement processes pursuant to this notice, separate contract notices will be issued.

The cross-government Prosperity Fund was created in 2015 to remove barriers to economic growth in order to reduce poverty in recipient countries in line with OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) criteria.

As well as providing development assistance to contribute to a reduction in poverty in recipient countries, these reforms are expected to create opportunities for international businesses, including UK companies.

The DIT led Investment Promotion Programme (IPP) will help selected developing countries to promote, attract and retain Foreign Direct Investment to create inclusive economic growth, job creation, technology and knowledge transfer and Investment transparency as its primary purpose while create opportunities for international business, including promoting UK outward investment in those countries as its secondary benefit.

The Investment Promotion Programme is designed to support MICs in building inward Investment -related capacity.

The IPP's potential countries are Nigeria, India, Philippines, South Africa, Peru and Pakistan.

The programme will initially start in two countries (to be selected) and will be scaled up to others, potentially within a year.

We are intending to procure delivery partner(s) for two Pillars of the Investment Promotion Programme with a budget of up to 28 000 000.00 GBP for 3-4 years.

The first Pillar is to provide technical assistance for capacity building in selected target countries' Investment Promotion Agencies and investment promotion functions within Special Economic Zone Authorities to land Foreign Direct Investment.

The second Pillar is the development of Trade and Investment/business integrity standards in the target countries.

The services will include (but not limited to) delivery services and advisory services.

Further details of the requirements will be discussed during the market engagement.

Potential providers interested by the scope of this PIN and who would like to participate in any potential provider engagement day (if held) should register expression of interest by no later than 31.12.2018 through the ProContract procurement portal https://procontract.due-north.com