- On 3 June, a roundtable event organised by Maxima Legal, along with the business group ‘Leaders Club’ and supported by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives in the North-western federal region, took place as a fringe event of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The event was at the Crowne Plaza hotel and was titled ‘The prospects for development of public-private partnerships in the regions of Russia’.The aim of the roundtable event was to create a platform for dialogue about public-private partnership projects, which could increase attractiveness of investing in the regions and the country as a whole. Particular attention was given to the best practices in preparing projects in the regions as well as the problems which are encountered with public and private partnerships during their development and implementing of PPP projects and their potential solutions.The roundtable event brought together government departments, corporations involved in development and the agencies for investment from St Petersburg, Kamchatka, the Republic of Udmurtia, and Kemerovo, Sverdlovsk, Leningrad and Moscow regions.Maxim Avrashkov, Managing Partner at Maxima Legal, opened the discussion and introduced the deputy chairman of the Committee for Investment in St Petersburg, Dmitry Sinkin, co-ordinator of the Leaders Club in St Petersburg and Leningrad region, Vyacheslav Traktovenko, and also the director of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives in the north-western federal region, Arzum Arzumanyan.The speakers commented that public-private partnerships is one of the areas of priority for developing the economy of the country as a whole, which had been discussed during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Vladimir Kilinkarov, Head of the PPP Practice at Maxima Legal, moderated the discussion and drew attention to the problems which regions encounter when implementing PPP projects, with focus on participants in the roundtable exchanging experiences. In the discussions about problems and challenges in PPP, Ilya Ivanov, the founder of the Medical Investment Group, and Daria Godunova, Managing Partner of the PPP Pioneers, contributed.
The deputy chairman of the Committee for Investment in St Petersburg, Dmitry Sinkin, talked about the city’s plans for development over the next 15 years with more than 15 agreements with PPP which will involve all types of industries, including transport, medicine, sport, tourism, culture and recreation.
The representatives of the regions shared their problems and interesting cases and exchanged experience about preparing and implementing PPP projects in their cities and regions.
Dmitry Sinkin and Vyacheslav Traktovenko commented on the necessity for PPP to move into the digital age and to create a single platform which can provide a link between government requests and business investments opportunities with the needs of people.
At the end of the roundtable, Vladimir Kilinkarov and Maxim Avrashkov thanked all the participants in the discussion for their insightful contributions and time given, and also proposed to continue discussion next year during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2018.
Additional information:
During the Economic Forum, the regional administrations of St Petersburg and Leningrad region signed a number of agreements for large PPP projects, which included:
– An agreement for the construction of the Eastern High-speed Radius (EHR), a new motorway stretching 16.8 kilometres which will link existing motorways in the city. The first agreement for the construction of the new motorway was entered into between the city and PAO Bank VTB; the size of the investment to be made by the bank is not less than 110 billion roubles.
– The second agreement for the construction of the EHR was signed with the Eurasian Development Bank (EABR), the bank stated its intention to invest not less than 150 billion roubles in the project.
– OOO Sankt-Peterburgskaya Platnaya Doroga signed an agreement with the city for the construction on a toll road between the railway crossings along the high-speed train routes of Sapsan and Allegro which link St Petersburg with Moscow and Helsinki respectively. The expected sized of this investment is 8 billion roubles.
– Eurasian Development Bank signed an agreement on the construction in St Petersburg of motorway M-49 and Suzdalsky prospekt. The investor is prepared to invest in the roads’ construction 14 billion roubles, the project is due to be be completed by 2027. According to the plan, motorway M-49 with link Primorskoye highway and an existing toll road and be a distance of nine kilometres.
– GK Etalon will carry out the construction of social infrastructure as part of its flagship project ‘Galaktika’. The investor will build two schools at a cost of around three billion roubles, and the city over a number of years will return the investments through instalments.
– PAO Rostelekom signed an agreement with the city with the intention of creating an intelligent system for monitoring the city’s roads which will become part of a wider project called ‘Intelligent city’. The project is planned to be completed by 2022 with an investment of four billion roubles.
– Another similar agreement was concluded with OOO Bayterg for the creation of a monitoring system for roads and traffic management. This system involves the installation in St Petersburg of more than a thousand cameras which will provide comprehensive traffic control. The project should be completed by 2019 with an anticipated investment of 6.5 billion roubles.
– LLC Medical Investment Group signed an agreement with the Leningrad region for the modernising of the outpatient network in the region. The programme includes the construction of two clinics (in Murino and Kudrovo) and ten outpatient clinics. The total investment is 1.5 billion roubles.
