Fiscal Year Operating Plans: Thank You.
Thank you for working with your ITA team members to formulate the operating plan for the federal fiscal year. Our four new cooperators now must go through the same exercise using the operating plan spreadsheet. New cooperators will learn more during their orientation on Oct. 23. New cooperators should also review previous issues of MaDCaP.
Market Research Rquests Due Early November.
For those of you who could benefit from some market research, now is the time of year that the Commercial Service plans where to focus its resources in generating new or updating ongonging market research. November 17 is the Commercial Service deadline for suggesting topics to focus on in 2009. That means that you and your ITA team need to talk about this right away. Ask your ITA team leader and any Commercial Service member of your ITA team about this.
Quarterly Performance Reports Due Oct. 31.
Your quarterly performance report is due a month after the end of the quarter. For the quarter ended September 30, 2008, send your report to your ITA team leader. Your team leader will share the report with other ITA members of your team for review. If these team members have comments or questions on your report, please respond to them promptly. The ITA leader of each team is supposed to send your performance report to the MDCP Manager by November 10, for final approval.
Limited Amount of No-Charge Service from the Commercial Service.
The Commercial Service participates on each MDCP project team. Please understand that the Commercial Service is required to charge fees to cover costs for many of the services it provides. However, the Commercial Service will provide, as part of an MDCP cooperative agreement, a limited amount of reasonable assistance to a cooperator at no charge. Such assistance does not extend to a cooperator's constituent member companies or to any other for-profit enterprises. These will pay the Commercial Service normal user-fees as applicable.
For assistance that goes beyond the “limited amount of reasonable assistance” as defined below, a cooperator should make provision in its budget. To determine the cost for services provided by the Commercial Service, you can contact your local Export Assistance Center or overseas Commercial Service offices. You should have ITA team members from the Commercial Service who can be your primary contact on such questions. Otherwise, you may also identify Commercial Service personnel at the Commercial Service's BuyUSA website.
No-charge means no fees are collected. The term applies only to indirect costs such as time expended by Commercial Service employees. This includes appointment making, temporary use of Commercial Service office space, when available, making hotel arrangements, briefing on market conditions, helping organize seminars/conferences, and other similar services worked out between the ITA's project team leader and the Commercial Service office. Direct costs and specially-prepared market research are not included in the cost-free assistance. A cooperator should always expect to pay direct costs, such as hiring an interpreter or transportation. No-charge assistance will not exceed two days’ Commercial Service effort per cooperator, per country, per year. There may be situations that prevent the Commercial Service from providing no-charge services to a cooperator. Perhaps the most common example is another event to which the Commercial Service office has already committed its resources.
During a visit to Delhi, NPES's Mike Hurley, accompanied by a board member and the ITA Manufacturing and Services industry specialist, stops in to the U.S. embassy to coordinate with ITA's Commercial Service.
Previous editions of MaDCaP: July 30 & September 3