When the estimated cost of a contract for construction is $10 million or less and only local firms will be solicited, a local corporation or partnership which is a foreign-owned (owned or controlling interest by individuals not citizens or permanent residents, or equivalent immigration status, of the United States or the cooperating/recipient country) local firm will be eligible if it is determined by USAID to be an integral part of the local economy, see
paragraph (b) of this section. However, such a determination is contingent on first ascertaining that no United States construction company with the required capability is currently operating in the cooperating/recipient country or, if there is such a company, that it is not interested in bidding for the proposed contract.