The DAI/Nathan Group is excited to announce the award of the Morocco Economic Competitiveness (MEC) project. A four-year USAID program with an additional option year that would take the project’s funding to $34 million, MEC takes a multi-sectoral approach to reduce barriers to productivity, trade, and investment in Morocco. MEC will have three components:

•       Improving the economic enabling environment: continuing work begun under DAI’s Improving the Business Climate in Morocco program, this component includes simplifying administrative procedures, reforming the commercial registry and the legal framework for collateral registry, reforming the court process for insolvency, and promoting alternative dispute resolution.

•       Using water sustainably for agricultural growth: building on DAI’s work under the regional Advancing the Blue Revolution Initiative, and also on work begun under Integrated Agribusiness Program, this component will include reusing wastewater, managing river basin water resources, and supporting more efficient agriculture water management practices. Export promotion and value chain activities will be carried out as part of Morocco’s public-private framework for agricultural development in two target regions.

•       Strengthening workforce development: this component involves matching skills with private sector demand for labor in agricultural or export sectors.

Using a 21st-century definition of competitiveness and given the economic and environmental dimensions of the project, DAI has proposed that MEC’s implementation be entirely carbon neutral.

The DAI/Nathan Group was recently awarded a contract to implement USAID's Jordan Fiscal Reform II Project. This five-year, $38.5 million project -- awarded under the GBTI II IQC -- will help the Government of Jordan maintain fiscal discipline and thereby facilitate macroeconomic stability and predictability in the budget system; promote a strategic approach to ensuring that resources are directed toward policy and strategy priorities; deliver value for money by ensuring that resources are used effectively; and ensure accountability in the use of public resources.  

Led by Chief of Party Mark Gallagher and Deputy Chief of Party Christina Erickson, the project will be implemented in collaboration with our international partners Georgia State University, Development & Training Services, and Public Resources Group, as well as our Jordanian partners GP Cube, Ihtiraf Consulting, Pinnacle Communications, and the Young Entrepreneurs Association.

From trade facilitation to structural reform, the DAI/Nathan Group will provide a wide range of technical assistance and training to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, one of the world’s premiere organizations promoting regional economic integration, trade, and investment. USAID awarded the $17 million contract for the APEC Technical and Training Facility (TATF) to the DAI/Nathan group, a joint venture of Nathan Associates and DAI, on September 19. Nathan will lead the four-year project, which will begin mobilizing on October 1, 2008.

Reaching Policy Goals In supporting APEC, the DAI/Nathan Group will strengthen the operations of the APEC Secretariat and assist APEC in achieving ambitious policy objectives, especially for economic growth and integration. Activities will involve:

• Trade facilitation—customs, standards and conformance, electronic commerce, business mobility
•  Investment facilitation
  
• Structural reform—competition policy, regulatory reform, public sector management, corporate governance, and economic and legal infrastructure.

TATF will also study the foundations of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, assist with financial market reforms, and undertake projects in energy and environment, human resource development, regional security, transparency, and intellectual property rights.  

The facility will be located near the APEC Secretariat so project staff can build the capacity of Secretariat staff to design, implement, and evaluate activities on a daily basis. The project will work closely with the Secretariat’s project management and policy support units as well as with its public relations and IT sections, and may support efforts to further cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat.

USAID/Philippines has awarded the DAI/Nathan Group, a joint venture, the Local Implementation of National Competitiveness for Economic Growth (LINC-EG) task order. This $14 million task order under the GBTI II indefinite quantity contract will be building on the success of EMERGE, a project managed by Nathan Associates since 2004.

Chief of Party Ramon Clarete, Deputy COPs Alid Camara and Rafael Evangelista, and a team of local experts—including Dr. Nereus Acosta, and Gigo Alampay—will work with advocacy groups to develop policy reforms that improve private sector competitiveness, focusing on local government reform and reform in Mindanao in particular. They will tap into their understanding of the agents and institutions of the Philippines’ political economy to ensure that advocacy and reforms take root among those who stand to benefit from them: the citizens, businesses, policymakers, and civil organizations that enliven the Philippines’ provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangay.

Possible activities under LINC-EG include supporting reforms in areas that improve competitiveness—such as leaseholding, land titling, business permitting and licensing, tax efficiency, customs administration, and logistics chain performance. The project team is expected to begin work by October 1, 2008.