MINSK, 22 September (BelTA) – The national infrastructure plan will be updated. Director of the National Agency of Investment and Privatization of Belarus (NAIP) Natalya Nikandrova made the relevant statement during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 22 September.
According to the source, a national infrastructure plan was prepared a short while ago. It is now necessary to update it in order to promote it later among interested representatives of the private sector of Belarus, foreign companies, and international financial institutions.
Natalya Nikandrova said that NAIP had already received information from government agencies, which suggest projects for inclusion into the renewed plan. “We will be pleased to accept proposals from the private sector as well since the law allows it. Later on, a new list of pilot public private partnership projects will be compiled from this plan,” said the official.
Natalya Nikandrova underlined that the project to reconstruct the M10 motorway (the Russian border — Gomel — Kobrin), which was included into the previous list of pilot projects, is already being implemented. “This project will stay. The construction of a hospital in Grodno is another project under consideration. The other pilot projects will be revised taking into account the new infrastructure plan. Something more interesting for investors may be suggested for implementation,” explained Natalya Nikandrova.
According to the source, since public private partnership projects take a long time to implement, they need to be carefully planned. “It is a complicated work with a lot of peculiarities. We are going to build up competences in this sphere, adjusting the Belarusian legislation. Plans have been made to pass bylaws soon. It is necessary to study the best practices, borrow some and try to adjust them to Belarus' peculiarities.”
The public private partnership center is now part of the National Agency of Investment and Privatization of Belarus. It used to be part of the Economics Research Institute of the Economy Ministry. Apart from providing the full set of investment-related services to foreign businesses NAIP will take part in the implementation of projects, which involve the public sector and the private sector and are of national importance. The agency is now in charge of preparing and evaluating proposals on implementing public private partnership projects.
Public private partnership is viewed as a model for cooperation between the state and the private sector in a way that allows implementing important social projects through reliance on innovations, capital, and resources of private businesses without putting too much stress on the state budget. In general terms the private partner is supposed to create and service an infrastructure object for a period of time specified by the contract (10-20 years usually) in exchange for fixed payments allocated by the state budget. After the contract expires, the state (a municipal government agency) takes over the asset.
