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UNECE International Specialist Centre on PPPs in Public Transport and Logistics inaugurated in China

The international Specialist Centre on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Public Transport and Logistics in China was officially inaugurated on 22 April in Beijing, in front of over 250 experts from the public and private sectors as well as top PPP experts from the academic community in China. Geoffrey Hamilton, Chief of UNECE’s International PPP Centre, delivered a lecture on UNECE International PPP Standards for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He shared his views with the audience on Good governance in PPPs; the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the type of PPPs that support People, Planet and Prosperity; and the rhe role of the new China PPP Centre as part of the UNECE International Centre of Excellence.


As a further sign of the huge interest in PPPs in China, over 20,000 people joined online to watch the opening and lecture delivered by Mr.Hamilton. This was followed by an interesting, open discussion between Chinese government officials from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and experts from law firms, Tsinghua University, and the China International Engineering Consulting Corporation (CIECC).


Officials from the NDRC mentioned the importance of the Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier this year with UNECE on cooperation on PPPs. This is a milestone in the promotion of PPP collaboration between the academic community and practitioners; and the resulting capacity building activities will create further synergies and strengthen support for the development of international PPP standards under the auspices of the UNECE PPP Centre.


Mr. Kaimeng Li, from China’s largest PPP consulting company, CIECC, stressed CIECC’s intention to work closely with the Specialist Centre in order to develop PPP standards that would help China and other countries to initiate PPPs correctly, from the beginning, and to design PPPs with the goal of achieving long term cooperation between the public and private sectors. He believed that the 'People First' principle would be recognised as a new concept to apply extensively in China’s PPP programmes.


The Specialist Centre has been established jointly by Tsinghua University and City University of Hong Kong (CityU) with the support of the Chinese government. It is housed at the Center for Public Private Partnership of Tsinghua University and the College of Business of CityU. It will focus on PPPs in Public Transport and Logistics. 

In June, UNECE will hold an International PPP Forum in Qingdao on the role of PPPs in China's Urbanisation and Sustainable Development, in cooperation with the National Development and Reform Commission of China and China Insurance Regulatory Commission, with support from Tsinghua University, CIECC and the Qingdao government.


For more information, please contact Ms. Jiangrong Yu at: [email protected].

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