Business notifications
The Southeast Asia Investment Deal Teams Project Development Support (PDS) Fund is an up to AUD 20.9m investment over 2.5 years (to 30 June 2027), with a possible 7-year extension option. It supports implementation of Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, developed by Australia’s Special Envoy for Southeast Asia, Mr Nicholas Moore AO. This investment is a non-ODA investment. It will assist Australian companies to expand their activities or to invest in Southeast Asia. It aims to achieve this by providing project development support to develop investible projects for Australian investors.
DFAT anticipates the approach to market will be through a two-step procurement process commencing in October 2024 with a request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI). A failure to respond to the RFEOI will result in a potential respondent not being invited to participate in the subsequent Request for Tenders (RFT), which is step 2 of the process. An RFT for the PDS Fund will be issued approximately January 2025 with mobilisation to commence in April 2025. The proposed procurement will be listed on the AusTender website when it is released to the market.
UPDATE: Opportunity released to market
A Request for EOI for a managing contractor was published on AusTender on 23 December 2024 and closed on 24 January 2025. Following this process, a shortlist of suppliers will be invited to respond to an RFQ. The outcome of this process will be published on AusTender.
In March 2025, nine project preparation proposals submitted by DFAT Deal Team Officers were selected to take part in a small pilot to test approaches to providing support for project preparation activities. Learnings from these pilots will inform the broader program. The selected activities will be in Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia, and in sectors including resources, healthcare, education and infrastructure. Proposed activities include feasibility studies, tax advice, legal advice and scoping work.
Once a managing contractor has been appointed to lead the PDS Program in mid-2025, procedures to apply for funding under the PDS fund will be made available to businesses. Details will be published on this page.
Questions can be directed to SoutheastAsiaEconomicStrategy@dfat.gov.au.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for planning purposes only and it does not represent solicitation or constitute a request for proposal, nor is it a commitment to purchase or tender for any described services. The scale, scope and focus of any proposed program may change at any time and is subject to internal DFAT approval.