Call for EOI: Improving and Upgrading the VNFOREST’s Forest Resource Monitoring System

Project for Enhancing the Sustainable Natural Resource Management phase 2

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Improving and Upgrading the VNFOREST’s Forest Resource Monitoring System

The Consultant Office of the Project for Enhancing the Sustainable Natural Resource Management phase 2 (hereinafter referred to as SNRM2) kindly invites agencies and companies (hereinafter referred to as “Candidates”) to send their Letter of Interest on the implementation of technical services of improvement and upgradation of the VNFOREST’s Forest Resource Monitoring System (FRMS). The bid winner will join a service contract with the SMRM2. All quotations are calculated using cost norms in the “UN-EU Guidelines for the financing of local costs in development cooperation with Vietnam (version 2017)” and procurement regulations of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

A.   Background

The Project for Enhancing the Sustainable Natural Resource Management phase 2 (SNRM2 Project) is funded by Japan Government and Vietnam Government, to be implemented by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The overall goal of the project is “The country’s capacity for maximizing multiple benefits derived from forest ecosystem is enhanced, which contributes to improved livelihoods of local people and mitigation of climate change impact through promotion of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), REDD+ and biodiversity conservation.”

The VNFOREST is operating the Forest Resource Monitoring System (FRMS) in accordance with MARD’s decision number 4539/QD-BNN-TCLN dated 06/11/2017. This system was developed by (completed) FORMIS II Project, and contains 3 major components which are FRMS Database, FRMS Web, and FRMS Desktop. After several years of operation, there have been a bulk of shortages, bugs, and errors existing that make system unstable operation. In addition, the country is carrying out a program of adjusting the administrative boundaries and the MARD also has issued its Circular number 33/2018/TT-BNNPTNT which came to be effective from 01 January 2019. These legal bases require the FRMS to be improved and its related data has to be updated accordingly. In consulting with SNRM2, the FPD proposes a list of work items for improving and upgrading the FRMS.

The SNRM2’s Consultant Office led by Japan Forest Technology Association (JAFTA) is providing technical services to the Project. The Project is being implemented from May 2021 to March 2025, as a success of the SNRM Project (2015-2021).

One of the six outputs of the Project is “Enhanced National Forest Monitoring System is promoted” with the improvement of the current VNFOREST’s FRMS to become a national database system, compliant with the Law on Forestry and current regulations on forest monitoring.

The winner in the bid on improving and upgrading the FRMS will carry out and deliver to SNRM2 Project the following technical works and services:

1.    Central Database:

• Update and adjust forest monitoring data to be compliant with Circular 33/2018;
• Upgrade the PostgreSQL software version, database security scheme, and operation capacity of the database;
• Review and adjust administrative boundary data;
• Fix errors (geometry, attributes, constraints) of the upgraded database;
• Improve, bug-fix, upgrade and optimize the synchronizing module.

2.    FRMS Web:

• Develop a hi-end WebGIS platform;
• Develop a static website to public annual forest monitoring data;
• Develop a module for provincial FRMS user management;
• Develop a tool to embed free satellite imagery data;
• Improve source code to display selected data based on log-in users;
• Improve/develop modules for theme map management and printing;
• Improve module for generation of reports at server end;

3.    FRMS Desktop:

• Upgrade to the latest version of the relevant software (QGIS, PostgreSQL, FRMS Client, …);
• Improve security scheme for the local database;
• Improve and add contents to the data validation function;
• Improve scripts to manage forest plot change history;
• Improve and upgrade scripts to manage plot code and attribute copying;
• Develop necessary and basic user support function;
• Improve and develop scripts to manage input data checking/validating;
• Develop module for generation of forest status map at all levels;
• Improve, fix and upgrade reporting module;
• Improve, fix and upgrade synchronizing module.

4.    FRMS Mobile:

• Develop module for line survey;
• Develop a function to auto-saving spatial data;
• Develop built-in modules

All work items above will be implemented under the proposal of VNFOREST/FPD and designed and supervised by the SNRM2 Project. Each of the work items must be documented properly in Vietnamese the procedures, steps, resources used.

B.    Expression of interest and bidding   

Interested candidates should address their Letter of Interest to the SNRM-2 Consultant Office by 17^th September 2021. All Letters of Interest shall be attached with necessary documents to show their capacity and solutions to solve the issues. In case of a joint-name, a representative bidder will be nominated as a contractor with the SNRM2’s Consultant Office.

Based on the letters of interest received, the SNRM-2’s Consultant Office will evaluate and select a shortlist to send the Letter of Invitation for Bid, if there are a sufficient number of candidates who qualified with all conditions in this letter. Letter of Invitation for Bid and necessary documents will be sent to the shortlisted candidates by the middle of September 2021, and the deadline for submission of bidding is by the end of September 2021, tentatively.

C.   Criteria to shortlist candidates

Compulsory requirements:

• The candidate has at least 5 years of experience in providing technical works within software development in the forestry sector (forest research, forest inventory, and statistics, forest monitoring, forest rangers). The candidate must also be able to provide evidence of at least 3 contracts in providing software development in the forestry sector, using the programming languages mentioned above.
• The candidate owns at least 5 engineers in ICT sectors with more than 3-year experience and at least 5 engineers in the forestry sector;
• The candidate must own a manager with software development expertise at least a master's degree in IT, at least 5 years of experience in software development and management, and have profound knowledge about forest inventory, statistics, and monitoring;
• The candidates must provide reliable reference sources from the application development projects, forestry projects with similar nature and scale. 

Advantage criteria:

• Experience (with reference source) in the development of similar systems;
• Experience (with reference source) in cooperation with ODA Projects in software development and the forestry sector.
• A priority will be given to the candidates which experience in the development of application/software and/or experience with implementation of the forest-related, central-FPD-related, provincial-FPD related projects;
• Have numerous experts to join the development team who were trained overseas and with exceed education levels.

D.   A set of bidding documents and materials

• Letter of Interest;
• Short description of the experience of implementation of technical/consulting services provided to forestry-related entities.
• List of business clients within the last 5 years.
• List of 3 references in the last 5 years about the software development project or forestry projects whose nature and scale are similar to this bidding (the Consultant Office may contact to confirm).
• Short CV of the potential team members to conduct the services.
• Certified copy of the business license.
• Certified copy of tax code registration and related document to prove that the company is not violating the regulations on tax.
• Certified copy of annual financial reports in the last 2 years.
• In case of a joint-name, a letter to commit to join in a joint-name with agreement on a representative to contract with the Consultant Office.

(In the case of a joint-name, each of the sub-contractors needs to submit the same materials mentioned above). 

The deadline for the SNRM2’s Consultant Office to receive the Letter of Interest in PDF format is at 05:00 PM, 17^th September 2021. All letters and documents should be addressed to:  

Consultant Office of Project for Enhancing the Sustainable Natural Resource Management

Room #608, DMC Building, 535 Kim Ma, Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Email: [email protected]  

Contact person: Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh – FRMS Coordinator

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited for further steps in the bidding procedure.

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (Vietnamese)