The first meeting of the supervisory board of the public-private partnership office took place in the Ministry of Infrastructure on Tuesday, 1 November.
Members of the office’s supervisory board include Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Nadia Kaznacheeva, President and CEO of Western NIS Enterprise Fund in Ukraine Yaroslava Johnson, First Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade Yulia Kovaliv, and representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
"During many meetings with foreign companies, the issue of public-private partnership or PPP was among the first to be raised: Which projects are ready? Which ones are we ready to propose to businesses? On what specific terms? Previously, the Ukrainian authorities responded to such questions mostly with silence. We will no longer be silent. We are launching an office, and we have decent people," Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelian said at a news briefing.
The PPP office plans to prepare legislative amendments (including continuation of the work on the law on concessions), facilitate implementation of pilot PPP projects, and involve transparent private investors in infrastructure projects.
Omelian said that a draft law on concession would be sent for a first reading next week and that it might be discussed at the interdepartmental level in mid-November.
The minister noted that the first objects for PPP projects have already been identified – the Olvia stevedoring company (formerly known as the Oktiabrsk commercial seaport), the Kherson commercial seaport, at a ferry terminal at the Chornomorsk seaport (formerly known as the Illichivsk seaport).
