ASTANA.  August 9. KAZINFORM /Alibek Bektasov/ Creation of favorable investment climate is one of the major conditions for economy diversification. As President Nursultan Nazarbayev notes in his annual Address to the Nation New Decade-New Economic Growth-New Opportunities of Kazakhstan,

the mechanism of public-private partnership possesses huge potential for attraction of private investments.

Vice Chairman of Kazakhstan Public-Private Partnership Center JSC Kairat Tilebaldinov tells about the activity on improvement of the mechanism of public-private partnership in the country.

Mr. Tilebaldinov, your Centre is imposed high responsibility in implementation of public-private partnership mechanism in order to attract investments to economy. How is this process formed in Kazakhstan?

In general, development of public-private partnership in any country can be divided into three stages: preparation, implementation and improvement. In Kazakhstan this process has passed the first stage. Moreover, we have already set to implementation of this mechanism. In particular, a legislative base on concession has been developed, the Center for Public-Private Partnership has been opened and some concessional projects are drafted and implemented.

Our Center practices in economic examination of concessional projects developed by the ministries or akimats - from the examination of the project to the examination of the agreement.

Besides, the Centre specializes in development of recommendations for authorized bodies and all interested state structures on improvement of the institutional system in public-private partnership.

For instance, together with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade we have elaborated a draft Program of public-private partnership development for 2010-2014 taking into consideration the best foreign experience in this sphere and the experience of implementation of the first concessional projects in Kazakhstan. 

This draft Program gives a definition of public-private partnership, defines the aims and objectives, basic principles and general approaches PPP development in Kazakhstan for 2010-2014.

Attraction of domestic as well as foreign investments will let reduce the burden on the country's budget. For implementing these mechanisms appropriate amendments to the legislation have been introduced.

In addition, the experts of our Center hold trainings and seminars during which we explain the principles of public-private partnership to central and local executives as well as to the businessmen.

We know that your Centre participated in recent III Astana Economic Forum...

Within the Forum we organized two sections: the conferences of world's PPP centers and a roundtable entitled Prospects of PPP development.

Representatives of PPP centers and associations of France, the U.S.A., Korea, Japan, Russia, Poland, Turkey, Holland, Indonesia, Israel, Ukraine, Germany as well as the experts of the international financial organizations presented reports on establishment of the Association of World Institutes of Public Private Partnership.

At the roundtable we discussed the prospects of further development of PPP mechanism, the measures of state support and the risks which must be taken into consideration while implementing the PPP projects.

A decision on establishment of the Association of World Institutes of Public-Private Partnership was made at the conference of public private partnership centers of the world. What will be the main function of the Association?

The public private partnership is one of the most popular instruments of investments attraction to realization of projects in traditional spheres of the state responsibility.

 In turn, many potential implementers of public private partnership projects raise such questions as where to find and get information of a range of countries, what projects are planned to be realized, what should be done to take part in a tender in accordance with the legislation of a country. Besides, the world practice still has no a single definition of public private partnership. Differences between legal systems of different states exist as well.

For solution of these problems we decided to establish a specialized data bank containing all information of all aspects of public-private partnership. This will be an international organization specializing in harmonization and unification of the approaches and legislations in PPP sphere. All knowledge, experience and recommendations in this field will be posted on a specialized web-portal.

The UN Economic Commission for Europe, the world leader in PPP, as well as Kazakhstan stress the necessity of establishment of such structure. The Commission put forward an initiative to be a coordinator of the activity of the Association.

Presentation of the Association was held in the office of our Center. A draft Protocol was signed upon the results of the meeting and was submitted for the consideration of the participants of the Conference in order to define the membership of the working group. The Action Plan on Association establishment was also submitted to the participants.

The main purpose of the Association will be cooperation of world PPP centers in exchange of experience for realization of socially important projects through establishment of a single informational platform. The Association will solve the following tasks: provision of the participants with information on international practice of realization of the public private partnership, development of recommendations on harmonization and unification of approaches to legislative and institutional bases of the public private partnership, elaboration of recommendations on realization of public private partnership projects.

Do foreign public private partnership centers support your idea?

Certainly! As long as many reports listened at the Conference were devoted to one topic - difficulties in development of the public private partnership within the post-crisis period and necessity of unification of the approaches of national legislations in this sphere for simplification of the work of global investors. In order to solve this problem the establishment of the Associations was suggested. Our initiative was supported by the representatives of PPP centers of foreign countries. A resolution on establishment of the Association in the territory of Kazakhstan was approved upon the results of the Conference.

To date members of the Public Private Partnership Center work on its registration, specification of tasks and functions that are discussed on-line with the members of the working group including representatives of the world leading public private partnership centers.

What other tasks despite harmonization of the legislation and information accumulation will the Association address?             

In accordance with the draft Charter of the Association its functions include: organization of internet-forums and on-line conferences on topical issues of the public private partnership, establishment and conduction of work of a training center on the public private partnership. Conduction and assigning ratings on development of public private partnership among the members of the Association is planned as well.  

How do foreign experts estimate development of the public private partnership in Kazakhstan? What do they recommend on further development of the public private partnership in our country?

Heads of the public private partnership centers of over 30 countries took part in the Conference. They highly appraised the development level of the Kazakh public private partnership. The participants noted that the development rates of the Kazakh public private partnership were the highest in the region.

Concerning recommendations the foreign experts find such spheres as water purification for remote areas, recycling and disposal of solid wastes as the most perspective for application of the public private partnership mechanisms. The experts also complimented the perspective of application of the public private partnership mechanisms in housing construction for public servants and construction of office buildings, schools and kindergartens, healthcare facilities and public utilities. 

Thank you for the interview.