UNECE announces the launch of a new initiative to help countries in the region use the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model for developing effective infrastructure and improved public services.
This initiative will be launched at a training event entitled ‘Addressing the challenges of doing PPPs in the Black Sea Region, the Caucasus and Central Asia: bridging the gap in PPP knowledge and skills’, held in Istanbul, on 29-30 April 2010.  The event is co-organised by the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the Turkish International Development Agency and the International PPP Platform Turkey.
Many states in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Black Sea region lack well developed modern transport and energy infrastructures, efficient border crossings and effective municipal and social services. Given the lack of resources from their national budgets, attracting investors who can bring in long-term capital, entrepreneurial initiative, operational skills and know-how, is critical if this infrastructure gap is to be closed. Many states in the region are thus looking to attract the private sector and to develop PPPs that can create new, and increase the efficiency of existing, infrastructure.
PPPs, however, are challenging to undertake; there is a lack of capacity at different levels of government to do PPPs and the level of knowledge about PPP in civil society and in the private sector is also rather low.  Speaking before the event, Dr. Ahmet T. Kesli, President of the International PPP Platform Turkey, one of the co-organisers declared:
“PPPs are a valuable tool that can improve efficiency and accessibilty of basic services. Turkey has a long history of experiences with PPP and we are delighted to have the opportunity to present these to the representatives from neighbouring countries of our region.” Dr. Kesli went on further: “Turkey has lots to learn from its neighbours as well in PPP. We are going through a challenging period where the policy towards PPP is being discussed, new revisions to the PPP law are being drafted and important developments that will constitute a boost to PPP in our country are being prepared. This meeting is indeed a timely one!”
The two day event will discuss the infrastructure gap in the region, the utility of the PPP model to close the gap, and the key challenges for countries getting started in PPP and how these can be best overcome.
UNECE in this respect is elaborating a comprehensive PPP Toolkit to assist countries, consisting of best practice guides on how to do PPPs and ‘training the trainer’ modules. Professor David Dombkins, a member of the UNECE Team of Specialists on PPPs and leading the international effort on the elaboration of this toolkit, will present one of these modules, a PPP readiness assessment tool at this event. Speaking about the toolkit, Professor Dombkins declared:
“The UNECE PPP toolkit will be invaluable in assisting countries in benchmarking their progress in establishing an enabling environment and will strengthen implementation capacity by identifying bankable projects”.
Other sessions will present the Turkish experience in PPPs including some case studies that are designed to help countries understand the challenge of PPPs. Leading PPP experts from the country, both public and private sectors, will attend. As a further contribution to PPP learning, the proceedings of the workshop will be published, while future follow-ups will be explored so that a network of agencies and private sector doing PPP in the region is created that can facilitate a regular exchange of experiences and best practice in this exciting, but challenging area.
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Ref: ECE/ECID/10/P02