Regional businesses and entrepreneurs will have a unique opportunity to provide a wide-ranging variety of equipment and supplies for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 through the Central Procurement Programme (CPP).
 
The Event's size and magnitude necessitate the acquisition of myriad "temporary elements" such as certain types of stadium seats, video replay boards, trailers, public address systems and security equipment which ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Inc. through the Local Organising Committees will be leasing or renting in bulk for the nine Host Venues.
 
The CPP, says Venue Development Director Donald Lockerbie, will ensure the Host Venues enjoy discounts which would otherwise be unavailable to countries on an individual basis. Currently a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is being advertised in regional newspapers and on the Event website (www.cricketworldcup.com), offering Caribbean businesses another avenue from which to benefit from ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 if they are selected to supply any of the required items.
 
This system, he explained, is common to mega sports events for acquiring products and components for event overlay construction which encompasses the installation of temporary tournament materials.
 
"The CPP is nothing new to world games. The Olympics, FIFA World Cup and other major events always do this because of the enormity of construction programmes and budgets. In this case, more than US$260 million is already being spent on permanent stadiums across the Caribbean - the legacy components - but events such as the ICC Cricket World Cup have additional requirements which are generally met with temporary measures," elaborated Lockerbie.
 
"For the most part, the CPP deals with all the components which are necessary to make stadia specifically ready for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. These are generally rented or leased from industry suppliers. For example, we will probably need 20 to 30 security magnetometers per stadium and they will likely never be used again at the stadia so it makes more sense to rent than to buy them."
 
Regional companies are being sought "to qualify to tender for the supply and installation" of a host of other necessities, including stadium seats, tent systems (tents equipped with air conditioning, electricity and flooring), portable kitchens, staging, field covers and portable fencing.
 
The Venue Development Director noted that "the contract with the ICC requires us to develop world-class venues so we are looking for suppliers of world-class equipment".
 
"We are using the CPP to locate and source the best equipment and suppliers regionally and then where necessary we will supplement that with international suppliers who are in the business of world games overlays.
 
"Companies with the right amount of experience and inventory will be pre-qualified for our tender programme beginning in early 2006 when only pre-qualified suppliers will be allowed to participate," said Lockerbie, reminding of the  December 9, 2005, deadline to respond to the RFQ and urging regional companies to get on board now.
 
The benefit of the CPP, he disclosed, is that "instead of one country renting 5,000 temporary grandstand seats, the entire region - as a united group - can tender for 65,000 seats cater to all the Host Venues' needs".
 
"That way the region can get a power-buy discount which individual countries would not get. For example, we will need several hundred square feet of tents for concession stands, first aid, Corporate Hospitality and other compounds. By renting via one big tender we should be able to get better prices than by each country doing it on its own and it will be much more economical," said Lockerbie who is also Chief Operating Officer for ICC CWC 2007.