Overview of best prospect sectors, major infrastructure projects, significant government procurements and business opportunities.

Project Procurement
IDB funded projects are conducted in 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with loan approval totaling $14.8 billion in Calendar Year 2017. Projects represent opportunities in various sectors including healthcare, agriculture, transportation, climate change, water, and energy.

On paper contract awards to American firms look small: just over $369 million from 2004 to 2017. This figure represents .4 percent of the total value of contracts during the period of approximately $45 billion of which one quarter corresponds to consulting/advisory work and three quarters for goods and civil works. Of the total of $361 million awarded to U.S. companies, 40 percent corresponds to consulting while goods and civil works represent 60 percent, suggesting that the American firms have a relative strength in consulting. However, it is important to note that American firm participation, and competitiveness, is much higher than the figures suggest: bids won through host-nation partners/subsidiaries, and participation as subcontractors and suppliers – all common methods of participation for American firms – are not counted in procurement figures.

The IDB authorizes that Executing Agencies the use of a variety of procurement methods for both goods/works as well as consulting services. While there is a modality that is “lowest cost”, many procurement opportunities incorporate a consideration of value or quality vs. cost that gives borrowers the flexibility to design projects, and select contractors, based on factors other than cost. This favors American firms capable of demonstrating value across the entire life cycle of a project.

Direct opportunities for American firms to bid on projects come from projects and operations in which a member country government borrows funds from the IDB for a project (e.g. Infrastructure, goods, works, consulting/advisory services). In these cases, the responsibility for the implementation of the project, and for the award and administration of contracts, rests with the borrower.

Indirect opportunities are equally important. American firms enjoy a strong reputation worldwide as suppliers of first-rate technologies and providers of specialized services. These goods and services often serve as vital components of a project. But they are usually not acquired by the borrowing government or the IDB themselves. Instead they are acquired through the privates sector by the primary contractors that win the contracts. By marketing to these primary contractors, American manufacturers and service providers can get their offerings into the supply chains that serve IDB funded projects.

Finally, the IDB also represents a window and a point of access into the rest of a developing country’s market. The IDB typically funds just a tiny fraction of a country’s overall public procurement program as the annual public procurement spend in the region is estimated at $800 billion per year. However, IDB projects are recognized as first-rate projects in design and execution, and thus attract the most highly reputable and competitive bidders from around the world. These projects influence the design and execution of other non-IDB funded projects, further attracting top-tier bidders to participate more broadly in the market. As such American firms benefit from knowing what is going on in and around the IDB regardless of whether or not they ever participate in a project themselves.

Corporate Procurement 
The IDB Group itself runs competitions for consulting and advisory services via the BEO Procurement system. The IDB Invest does not participate in this system and maintains its own portal for procurement of consulting and advisory services.

Private Sector Solutions
IDB Invest offers a number of products and services to private sector interests to encourage entrepreneurship and build sustainable businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean. These include loans, equity, venture capital, and other financial/investment offerings, with special focus on infrastructure, manufacturing, agribusiness, services, and financial markets. Annually, IDB Invest commitments total $2 billion.
 

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.