[Index]
Stability Pact Gives High Priority to
Public-Private
Partnerships (PPPs) at UNECE Session
Geneva, 6 November 2001
The private sector, in partnership with the public sector,
needs to play a bigger role in the rehabilitation and modernisation of
infrastructure for the economic recovery of Southeast Europe. Resources from
both governments and the international donor community will not be sufficient
to meet the massive needs in almost all the countries of the region in areas
such as transport, energy and water and waste disposal as well as in
education, health and housing.
This was the topic of a special session on
"Public-Private Partnerships: Facing the Challenges", that took
place in Bucharest on 24 October. The Special Session was organized by the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Stability Pact and
the Foreign Ministry of Romania on the occasion of the Second Regional
Conference of the Stability Pact for South East Europe. The participants
included representatives of government, private sector and banks including the
EBRD.
Opening the session Mr Bodo Hombach, Special Coordinator,
declared that the Stability Pact was moving into a very important phase with
commitments of new resources. "These," he said, "would help in
leveraging new resources from the private sector."
Mr Paolo Garonna, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNECE,
declared that "private sector resources, capacities and skills need to
become the bedrock of infrastructure reconstruction in the region. In South
East Europe, given the resource requirements, PPPs are not a policy option,
but a strategic necessity."
Despite the necessity the number of operational PPPs is
very small. One of the main bottlenecks that needs to be overcome is the lack
of Government capacity at national and local levels, to identify viable
projects and bring them forward into the market place. "While training
programmes for civil servants on PPPs were taking place in western Europe not
a single programme had been undertaken in the south east European
region", said Mr Geoffrey Hamilton, Regional Adviser of the UNECE. The
challenge is to improve the skills of public administration to negotiate and
manage successful PPP projects.
Mr. Eamonn Kearns, Head of the Irish PPP Unit, said that
the Irish experience showed how important it was to establish dedicated PPP
Units or Task forces that covered all relevant ministries and which could pool
skills and mobilize the public administrations behind PPPs, giving a central
direction and high-level political support.
The day after the special session, the UNECE delivered a
report of the event to the Second Regional Conference for the Stability Pact
where numerous delegations of different European countries were present.
Considering the extremely positive support received at this Conference and in
order to build the government capacity to identify and promote concrete PPP
projects, it was proposed to hold a PPP Forum under the auspices of the
Stability Pact next year in Romania.
For further information please contact:
Mr. Geoffrey Hamilton
Regional Adviser
Coordinating Unit for Operational Activities
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations, Office 433
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +(41 22) 917 2838
Fax: +(41 22) 917 0178
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/OPA/01/11