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Agricultural
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Arkansas
Procurement Division Home
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Arkansas Procurement Assistance Center (APAC)The Mission of the Arkansas Procurement Assistance Center is to provide training and resources that help Arkansas businesses generate revenues and thereby create or retain jobs for Arkansans through effective government contracting. The APAC Agri Project extends APAC services to farm-based businesses in rural Arkansas. The Vision of APAC is to be the recognized source of knowledge and assistance for Arkansas companies to compete and perform successfully as vendors to public agencies and for agencies to achieve their diversity goals. The Center was established in 1988 as an offshoot of the Entrepreneurial Services Center operated by the University of Arkansas, with funding from the Job Training Partnership Act Title III program. APAC served 350 clients statewide, resulting in 111 contracts for $7,001,000, creating or retaining 133 jobs. Its purpose was to provide government contract assistance and education to the businesses of Arkansas. In August, 1990, the program lost its federal funding but ESC continued limited service to the clients. APAC reopened on October 1993, when the University entered into a Cost Sharing Cooperative Agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency of the Department of Defense to participate in the nationwide Procurement Technical Assistance Program. Under this agreement, APAC continues to serve hundreds of Arkansas businesses and dozens of public agencies. The University’s Cooperative Extension Service and the DOD share the costs, and the budget is supplemented by 3rd party matching funds and in-kind contributions. Major sponsors in recent years include Malvern National Bank and Highland Industrial Park, and briefly, the Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development. In 2005, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation awarded a Planning Grant to study extending APAC services to companies located on family farms. In 2004, the program moved into expanded quarters in Malvern where the public has access to a resource center and library dedicated to government contracting, and where classes and workshops are conducted, and where faculty and staff provide counselling and technical assistance to clients statewide. For at least ten years, a small office in Little Rock has provided professional consulting for clients as well. For more information, please proceed to the Overview and other page links listed below.
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University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture |
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