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7 October 2008 |
ROUND TABLE “PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: PRIORITIES IN IMPROVING THE REGULATORY AND LEGAL BASE”On 7 October, 2008, the Hotel National hosted a meeting of the Round Table on the topic “Public-private partnership: priorities in improving the regulatory and legal base”. The event was organised by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy and Enterprise, the Sub-committee for Development of Public-Private Partnership) and the law firm Vegas Lex. The purpose of the Round Table was to discuss the current status of and potential for public-private partnership (PPP), as well as practical measures for providing legislative support for the development PPP-mechanisms in Russia’s economy. The discussions were moderated by Khafiz Mirgazyamovich Salihov, State Duma Deputy, Chairman of the Subcommittee for Development of Public-Private Partnership under the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Economic Policy and Enterprise, and by Albert Eganyan, Managing Director of the law firm Vegas Lex, which is taking an active part in implementing the biggest PPP-projects in Russia. The discussion centred round the topic of improving the legislative provision for the partnership between the government and business, particularly the question of the feasibility of adopting a unified federal law covering PPP. “As of today, there exist two directly opposing positions in relation to a law on PPP”, Albert Eganyan noted. “The first is that no unified federal law is needed and that what is required is merely to take all the regulatory acts and modernise them. The second opinion comes down to a unified federal law on PPP being necessary to establish that large PPP-projects fall beyond the jurisdiction of the various laws regulating investment projects. Each of the existing legal codesв (tax, civil, land and town-planning) is not bad in itself, but they are not designed for implementation of mega-projects, since they were drawn up during the period between 1995 and 2002, at a time when modernisation of the economy and start-up of major new investment projects were simply not on the agenda. The various spheres of the legislation correlate only weakly with one another, this being particularly evident in large-scale projects. The Round Table took the form of a live discussion and the members of the presidium and participants in the event had an opportunity to express their views on the various aspects of PPP. The discussion focused on existing regulatory restrictions on implementation of PPP-projects and the need to modernise the procedure for state rendering of state support through the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation. The participants in the meeting reviewed the classification of the approach to the problems involved in implementing complex investment projects and touched on the subject of the global financial crisis and its effect on implementation of PPP-projects in Russia. The Round Table also included a discussion of aspects of implementing specific investment projects. The participants in the meeting discussed the biggest public-private partnership projects: Belkomur (Comprehensive industrial and infrastructure development of the Perm Territory, the Republic of Komi and the Archangel Region), comprehensive development of South Yakutia, comprehensive development of Zabaikaliye, the investment project for organisation of integrated microcircuit production, the Akademicheskiy project implemented by Renova-StroyGroup (GKRenova), and the projects of the company ARIKOM. The participants in the work of the Round Table were as follows: Khafiz Migazyamovich Salihov, State Duma Deputy, Chairman of the Subcommittee for Development of Public-Private Partnership under the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Economic Policy andEnterprise Kira Alexandrovna Lukianova, State Duma Deputy, Member of the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy and Enterprise Foat Fagimovich Komarov, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, member of the United Russia faction, Deputy Chairman of the Transport Committee Georgiy Vladimirovich Petrushenko, Head of the Department for Investment Policy and Public-Private Partnership of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation Bulat Vyacheslavovich Stolyarov, Director of the Regional Policy Institute Alexander Vladislavovich Bazhenov, Director of the PPP centre of the Bank for Development and Foreign Trade Yuri Alexeevich Demochkin, General Director of ООО Inter-regional Investment Company Severozapad-Prikamye Mikhail Lvovich Bruk, General Director of OAO South Yakutia Development Corporation Danila Valerievich Kotlyarov, Financial Director of OOO ARIKOM Ilya Evgenievich Fedorov, Director of the PPP Department of OOO Renova-StroyGroup Maxim Alexandrovich Timoshin, Deputy Head of the Section for Foreign Investment of the Investment Department of the Russian Railways. |
