MINSK, 28 October (BelTA) – The practical work on the pilot project meant to reconstruct the M10 motorway using public private partnership principles will begin in 2017, BelTA learned from Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister Alexander Zaborovsky during the session of the Interagency Infrastructure Coordination Council on 28 October. Experts of the Business Advisory Board of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) took part in the session.
“The pilot project has already begun. The feasibility study is in development. A group of five specialists of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is working in Belarus to complete the preparatory stage of the project this year in order for us to start practical work in 2017,” explained the Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister.
Speaking about the work done on public private partnership projects involving the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the official remarked that their assistance primarily comes as grants to prepare technical documents the projects require. “They provide technical aid to Belarus and retain services of the best consultants and specialists so that we would not make errors in complicated projects,” he said.
Director of the Economic Cooperation, Trade and Land Management Division of the Secretariat of the UNECE Committee on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Public Private Partnership Virginia Cram-Martos underlined that she always refers to Belarus as an example of a proper approach to institutionalizing the process and creating the necessary infrastructure for public private partnership projects.
The public private partnership pilot project provides for reconstructing part of the M10 motorway in Belarus. The road connects the Russian Federation border (Selishche), goes through Gomel to reach Kobrin. The section starting at 109.9km and ending at 195.15km will be reconstructed. The M10 motorway is an international transport corridor that crosses Belarus to connect the European Union and Russia, Kazakhstan and China. The road along the southern border of Belarus is 543km long. The corridor shortens transportation time between the European Union and China and bypasses the overworked transport nodes of Minsk and Moscow.
A section of the M10 motorway starting near the town of Rechitsa and ending in the eastern part of the town of Kalinkovichi will be reconstructed and upgraded up to a four-lane motorway. The reconstruction project will double the motorway's throughput capacity in addition to reducing travel times and increasing the upper limit of the weight per axle restriction up to standards of the European Union (11.5 tonnes per axle). The project is supposed to be implemented in 2017-2020. It is viewed as a key part of the effort to build an alternative to the M1 motorway.
The Interagency Infrastructure Coordination Council was established in May 2014. It is in charge of developing proposals for enabling legal, economic, and informational conditions conducive to the attraction of private capital, including foreign capital, for the sake of implementing infrastructure development projects using public private partnership principles.
In 2015 the Interagency Infrastructure Coordination Council worked out and passed a national infrastructure plan for 2016-2030. The document presented a complex evaluation of the country's need for infrastructure and the capability of the state budget to satisfy the demand. The plan will be updated every year. Top 100 public private partnership projects have been prepared bearing the national infrastructure plan in mind. They are supposed to be implemented after the pilot projects are done.
