CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST AND PROPOSAL

1.?????GENERAL CONDITIONS

1.1 Requester: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Office Tirana, ProSEED 2.0

1.2??Profile:

The Programme “Sustainable Economic and Regional Development, Employment Promotion and Vocational Education and Training 2.0” in Albania (GIZ ProSEED 2.0), is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The objective of this programme is: The employment situation in Albania has improved, including digital and green elements. Implementing partners of the programme are Ministry of Finance and Economy, and their subordinate institutions.

The program applies an integrated approach by improving the competitiveness of MSMEs in employment-related sectors by promoting the use of digital or green elements.

2.?????SUBJECT

Institutions in the field of international development cooperation such as UN and EU, have reached consensus that a fast and fair transition of global economic systems towards greener, digital, equitable and resilient economies is needed. These efforts are currently boosted through two major cross-cutting interventions “digital transformation” and “green recovery”.

In 2021 the European Commission launched the EU digital decade and presented “The Digital Compass 2023” that evolves around four cardinal points of digitalization: Skills, Infrastructure, Business and Government. The EU’s digital strategy aims to make this transformation work for people and businesses, while helping to achieve its target of a climate-neutral European Union by 2050.

Taking in consideration the aspirations of Albania to become an EU member state country, the need to comply with EU policies and guidance comes naturally and is reflected in government dialogue at all levels, including all developments about EU Digital Compass.

The introduction of new digital or green solutions to improve processes, functions, and operations efficiency delivering a better management approach, will help the MSMEs to scale up their reality and improve their competitiveness.??

In this respect, ProSEED 2.0 under the Output 2 (Support to MSMEs) is announcing a Call for (i) Expressions of Interest and (ii) Proposals until 25.11.2022, which shall help to identify private service providers (Tech companies and/or Green innovative companies) that will conduct a specific project to improve the competitiveness of MSMEs by offering digital or green solutions to them and support the implementation.

The private service providers will conduct a needs analysis and target minimum 20 MSMEs that will benefit from the solutions that will be offered.

The concept proposal must be in line with the requirements below:

1.?????The contractor will offer support measures where digital and/or green solutions will make the MSMEs more competitive in the market (to be measured in market share, time saving, turnover, lean production) and support them in maintaining or even increasing their number of employees (to be measured by comparing the number of employees before and after the project). Target groups of MSMEs, outside Tirana – Durres corridor are preferred.

2.?????The support under each contract should target minimum 20 MSMEs, where 30% are to be women led. The selection of the target group (minimum 20 MSMEs) will be consulted with GIZ ProSEED where the final selection of the suggested target group will be agreed with the ProSEED programme. ?

3.?????The concept proposal should present a technological service and/or tool that helps MSMEs to introduce digital or green solutions. The concept proposals should reflect and include information on the need for digital or green solutions of the group of MSMEs that should be addressed by the project (e.g., production resource management, IT management, financial management, CRM/Customer Relationship Management, ERP/Enterprise Resource Planning, or any other management or production applications) that make the MSMEs more reliable and competitive in the national and international market.

4.?????There is no limitation for the conduction of the project in terms of sector and geographical location of the targeted MSMEs.

5.?????The overall implementation timeframe for the contract is up to 15 months, where the private service providers with the digital/green solution that will be selected from this open call, are going to adapt, integrate or upgrade the solution to the needs of the target group within 3 month and offer it for at least 1 year free of charge.

6.?????The proposals that will be selected through this Open Call can have a maximum value of up to 35,000 EURO (equivalent in ALL).

7.?????The call will have up to 5 proposals accepted.

8.?????Only applicants that will pass the first phase of evaluation will be required to submit a budget proposal. The proposed budget has to be agreed with GIZ ProSEED.

3.?????ELIGIBILITY

Participation is open to all legally registered entities with active status, established according to Albania law in force. All legal entities interested in the application process should ask for application forms to the address: [email protected]

4.?????Selection Procedure:

????????First step: All EOIPs will be evaluated based on the technical criteria described in the evaluation grid attached to the EOIP:

????????Second Step: All entities that have passed the 1st round of evaluation will be notified within 15 working days in writing and will be invited to submit a budget. Interviews and negotiations can take place before a final decision is made.

????????Third Step: Contracts will be awarded to the applicants with best technical and financial offer. Applicants that will not be qualified will be notified in writing after the evaluation process is completed.

5.?????DEADLINE & SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS

The due date for submitting the application is 25 November 2022. The documents should be submitted in pdf format via e-mail to: [email protected] with subject: EoIP – Digital or Green Solution / Company name”

All written communication for this procedure and the following successful ones must be in English.