DUSHANBE, September 23, 2013, Asia-Plus — The report on Tajikistan’s preparedness for implementation of Public-Private Partnership is expected to be submitted to the Government of Tajikistan in November.
This issue was reportedly discussed at a meeting of Davlatali Saidov, Chairman of the State Committee on Investments and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest) with representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) that took place here last week.
According to the GosKomInvest press center, Saidov, in particular, noted that GosKomInvest had carried out a serious work on implementation of PPP in Tajikistan. Thus, the Council for PPP and the Union for Implementation of PPP Projects have been set up in the country under the RT Law “On the Public-Private Partnership” that was adopted in December 2012.
For his part, Mr. Arthur Smith, the head of the UNECE group of specialists, noted that the report on Tajikistan’s preparedness for implementation of Public-Private Partnership is expected to be submitted in November, the GosKomInvest press center said.
Meanwhile a two-day seminar on development of PPP in Tajikistan and assessment of national preparedness for implementation of PPP took place at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) on September 17-18, 2013. The seminar was held by MoEDT and GosKomInvest under the technical support of the experts of the Department of PPP (UNECE Geneva).
Public-private partnership (PPP) describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies.
PPP involves a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project. In some types of PPP, the cost of using the service is borne exclusively by the users of the service and not by the taxpayer. In other types (notably the private finance initiative), capital investment is made by the private sector on the strength of a contract with government to provide agreed services and the cost of providing the service is borne wholly or in part by the government. Government contributions to a PPP may also be in kind (notably the transfer of existing assets). In projects that are aimed at creating public goods like in the infrastructure sector, the government may provide a capital subsidy in the form of a one-time grant, so as to make it more attractive to the private investors. In some other cases, the government may support the project by providing revenue subsidies, including tax breaks or by providing guaranteed annual revenues for a fixed period.
In Tajikistan, the Pamir Energy Company (PamirEnergy) Project is a model of collaboration between private and public partners, between IFC and IDA and between the World Bank Group and donors, and its example can be successfully followed in other difficult regions of the developing world.
