Invitation for the market consultations with interested suppliers for upcoming procurement procedure "Procurement & Commercial Services Framework for the Rail Baltica Global Project"

1.	Contracting Authority:	RB Rail AS Reg. No. 40103845025 Address: Satekles iela 2B, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia
2.	Contracting Authority’s contact person:	Procurement Manager Baiba Ūbele e-mail: [email protected] phone No.: +37126273973
3.	Legal basis for the consultation:	The consultation is organised in accordance with the regulation of Section 18(2) of the Public Procurement Law, which provides rights for the contracting authority to organise a consultation with suppliers (market research) in order to prepare for the anticipated procurement procedure and inform potential suppliers about the procurement plan and requirements.
4.	Subject-matter of the procurement:	The Contracting Authority seeks for the support from service providers to receive independent professional expert opinion/advice and support in relation with its current and/or future activities, including, inter alia, the preparation of procurement related documentation, commercial documentation, pricing approaches, procurement and related commercial strategy formulation, supply chain management support, commercial support, procurement and related commercial best practice analysis and improvement etc, as well as support in planning, managing, implementing and monitoring procurement procedures for the Global Project at any or all stages of its procurement implementation, as well as peak time additional resource deployment support that may be required. Currently it is envisaged that he subject-matter of the procurement will be divided into 7 (seven) Lots: Lot No 1 – Procurement support services in Estonia. Lot No 2 – Procurement support services in Latvia. Lot No 3 – Procurement support services in Lithuania. Lot No 4 – International procurement support services. Lot No 5 – Contract implementation support services. Lot No 6 – Supply chain management & consultancy services. Lot No 7 – Financial support services in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
5.	Purpose of the consultation:	To inform interested suppliers about the planned procurement exercise and the content of the subject-matter, as well as to obtain feedback from the interested suppliers regarding the main requirements.
6.	Time and place of the consultation:	On 11th January 2022 at 15:00 online (Riga time), using the Microsoft Teams app (planned duration of the consultation ~ 2 hours). In case of changes, representatives of interested suppliers will be informed and the respective information posted on the Contracting Authority’s website: https://www.railbaltica.org/tenders where this invitation is published.
7.	Procedure of application of interested suppliers for participation in the consultation:	The market is invited to participate in the consulation meeting and provide feedback on the draft scope of works documentation, which will be published on website: https://www.railbaltica.org/tenders/ where this invitation is published, by the 4th of January 2022. The market is invited to submit questions (if any) prior to the meeting and not later than by 7th January 2022, 10:00 (Riga time) by sending them to the specified e-mail of the Contracting Authority’s contact person. Please use the form for questions (form also contains questions provided by the Contracting Authority) available here: (QUESTIONNAIRE). After the consultation meeting and not later than by the 13th January 2022 10:00 (Riga time), the interested suppliers are invited to provide feedback (if any) on the draft scope of works documentation by sending it to the specified e-mail of the Contracting Authority’s contact person. To participate in the consultation, the interested supplier shall apply by the 11th January 2022, 12:00 (Riga time) by sending its application to the specified e-mail of the Contracting Authority’s contact person. Questions submitted will be discussed during the common meeting with all interested suppliers by not disclosing the name of the interested supplier who submitted questions. To apply for participation in the consultation, the interested supplier shall specify its name, registration number, name and surname of its representative, representative’s e-mail and representative’s phone number. The invitation (link) to consultation will be sent to the representative of the interested supplier to the e-mail specified by him/her no later than by 11th January 2022 12:00 (Riga time).
8.	Matters to be discussed during consultation:	Consultation’s agenda: Introduction to the Rail Baltica Global project; Information on the procurement of “Procurement & Commercial Services Framework for the Rail Baltica Global Project” of general description and scope of works and planned framework agreement process. Q&A session. During the consultation, the Contracting Authority will present information in English. The interested suppliers, who will participate in the consultation, shall take into account that the consultation will be documented (incl. it will be recorded) and general summary published. The information provided during the consultation will be disclosed to third persons in order for the Contracting Authority to ensure transparency of the process, observation of the principle of equal treatment and not to restrict the competition. During the consultation interested suppliers shall consider whether the information provided by them is considered as commercial secret or confidential and restrain from disclosing such information. It is the sole responsibility of the interested suppliers not to disclose any commercial secret or confidential information.
9.	Documenting of the consultation and publication of the documentation:	The participants of the discussion will be registered for the needs of organising the consultation. The consultation will be documented for the preparation of a summary of the consultation (a recording in Microsoft Teams will be retained, but not published). A short summary of the progress of the consultation, questions asked and answers provided, as well as the feedback provided, will be published on the Contracting Authority’s website: https://www.railbaltica.org/tenders/, where this invitation is published. DRAFT TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION (04.01.2022): (download) PRESENTATION: (download) Summary of minutes of the meeting with potential suppliers (download)
10.	Additional information:	The Contracting Authority and its representatives during the consultations will provide only general information about the subject-matter of the planned procurement procedure, which may change later during the development of the documentation for the specific requirements. This information does not entail any legal consequences (rights and duties) for the Contracting Authority and interested suppliers. The publicly available information about the Rail Baltica project is available on the website: https://www.railbaltica.org/