The current environment for infrastructure and innovation financing will be the focus of the substantive segment of the Eighth session of the UNECE Committee on International Cooperation and Integration. . Participants will also consider policy options to support these two key drivers of economic growth and competitiveness, taking into account existing financial constraints in the public and private sectors.

The highlight of the first part of the session, which will start on Wednesday 12 February, at 3 pm, will be a keynote speech by Philipp Hartmann, acting General Director of Research at the European Central Bank, on “Financing Economic Growth”. Business angels, venture capitalists and policymakers will then debate the major current trends and most pressing policy challenges in innovation and infrastructure financing.  

The second part of the substantive segment, which will take place on Thursday, 13 February from 10 am until 1 pm, will be opened by James Stewart, Chairman of KPMG’s Global Infrastructure Practice and Chairman of the UNECE PPP Business Advisory Board, who will speak on “The role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the post 2015 UN Development Agenda”. Policymakers and business leaders will then explore: the role of PPPs in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; how PPPs can contribute to meeting the new challenges in the emerging post-2015 United Nations Development Agenda; and how international PPP best practices and standards can maximize the developmental impact of PPPs.

For further information, please visit: http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=34398

Or contact

Ms Michiko Enomoto                                          
Phone: +41 (0)22 917 5989                                
E-mail: [email protected]
Economic Cooperation, Trade, and Land Management Division