Country: The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Project: AGRICULTURE STRENGTHENING AND ACCESSION PROJECT Financing: World Bank Abstract: AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY, ORTHOPHOTO PRODUCTION AND DIGITALIZATION OF INITIAL LPIS DATA FOR MAFWE Sector: Miscellaneous Loan/Credit Number: Loan No. 4861-MK, Project ID No. P101216 Contract/Bid Number: Invitation for Bids (IFB), MK-ASAP-C1-ICB-TS06 Deadline: 24 March 2009

1. This Invitation for Bids follows the General Procurement Notice for this Project that appeared in UN Development Business Issue No. 707 of 31 July 2007.

2. The Republic of Macedonia has received a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development toward the cost of Agriculture Strengthening and Accession Project, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds of this loan to payments under the Contract for Procurement of Technical Services: Aerial Photography, Orthophoto Production and Digitalization of initial LPIS data for MAFWE MK-ASAP-C1-ICB-TS06. This contract will be jointly financed by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. Bidding will be governed by the World Bank’s eligibility rules and procedures.

3. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy (MAFWE) now invites sealed bids from eligible and qualified bidders for the procurement of Technical Services, as follows:

  Preparatory works, Aerial images acquisition, Production of DTM and digital orthophoto maps, Digitalization of initial LPIS data etc. The delivery period is 8 months.

4. Bidding will be conducted through the International Competitive Bidding (ICB) procedures specified in the World Bank’s Guidelines: Procurement under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits, May 2004, revised October 1, 2006 and is open to all bidders from Eligible Source Countries as defined in the Guidelines.

5. Interested eligible bidders may obtain further information from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, Project Team Office; Attn: Mr. Vlatko Mrkev, Procurement Specialist and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address (1) given below from Monday to Friday between 9:00AM to 3:00PM local time.

6. Qualifications requirements include:

Financial strength of the Bidder:

  Minimum average annual turnover of EUR 1.800.000 calculated as total certified payments received for contracts in progress or completed, within the last five (5) years;

  Availability of, financial resources such as liquid assets, unencumbered real assets, lines of credit, and other financial means, other than any contractual advance payments to meet the cash-flow requirement of EUR 450.000

Experience and past performance on similar contracts:

Participation as contractor, management contractor, or subcontractor, in at least two (2) contracts within the last five (5) years, of the same size, nature and complexity with this contract; in regard to the size, each of these two contracts should be of a value of at least seven hundred thousand EUR (700.000 EUR); the same nature and complexity means that each of these two past contracts should demonstrate that the bidder has conducted/covered the following key activities: (i) Aerial Photographs Acquisition, (ii) digital orthoimages creation for the purpose of visual photo interpretation; and (iii) photo interpretation of digital orthophoto maps for LPIS creation and/or update.

Technical Capacity:

-Minimum number of employees at least 5 permanent staff working in the fields covered by the contract (aerial photography, digital orthophoto production, preparation of digital geographic data).

-Quality certificate ISO 9001 covering the areas related to the scope of the contract.

A margin of preference for eligible national contractors/joint ventures shall not be applied. Additional details are provided in the Bidding Documents.

7. A complete set of Bidding Documents in English may be purchased by interested bidders on the submission of a written application to the address below and upon payment of a non refundable fee of 50 EUR or equivalent amount in Macedonian Denars (MKD). The method of payment will be direct deposit or transfer in EUR, SWIFT BIC: NBRM MK 2X; IBAN: MK07 1007 0100 0002 983 in National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia; Correspondent bank: DEUTCHE BUNDESBANK ZENTRALE, Wilhelm Epstein strasse 14, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (SWIFT BIC: MARK DE FF), in favor of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy. For payments in MKD the direct deposit can be made in Account No. 1400100280786D4, income code 724125, program 13, in favor of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy-Agriculture Strengthening and Accession Project. The exchange rate to be applied is the selling exchange rate from the list of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, prevailing on the day of payment. The Bidding Documents will be sent by courier at the address indicated by the bidder.

8. Bids must be delivered to the address (2) below at or before 13:00 hours, local time on 24 March 2009. Electronic bidding will not be permitted. Late bids will be rejected. Bids will be opened physically in the presence of the bidders representatives who choose to attend in person at the address (3) below at 13:00 hours, local time on March 24, 2009.

9. All bids shall be accompanied by a Bid Security in amount of EUR 17.000 or an equivalent amount in a freely convertible currency.