USAID’s Public-Private Partnership Training Program Hosts the First Training on Public Private Partnerships

On January 20-22, 2009, the U.S.  Agency for International Development (USAID) conducted the first training program on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) techniques for a group of 63 officials from Ukraine.  The event took place at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in Kyiv.  USAID’s Deputy Mission Director, Sarah Wines, welcomed all the workshop participants.   PPPs are agreements between governments and the private sector which focus on delivering needed public services.  PPPs require private contractors to invest either their time, technology, or money and to deliver public services such as transportation infrastructure, energy, water treatment & distribution, solid waste management, school buildings, hospitals, etc.   According to the World Bank, in 2007, over $160 billion was invested in PPPs worldwide in the telecommunications, energy, transport, and water sectors in emerging market economies.  In 1994 - 2007 Ukraine attracted some $7 billion in private investments in its infrastructure.  However, this is low compared to most of its neighbors: $36 billion in Turkey, $31 billion in Poland, $27 billion in Hungary, $13 billion in Romania and $8 billion in Bulgaria.   Ukrainian officials attending this workshop included representatives from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Housing and Communal Economy, Ministry of Regional Development and Building, State Road Administration Ukravtodor, State Service for Tourism and Resorts, Rivne Regional State Administration, several City Councils such as Lviv, Pryluky, Ukrainka, Komsomolsk, Kirovske, District Councils of Kyiv City as well as InvestUkraine, Proinvest Association, The training brings together representatives from private sector firms: Incom, Arzinger&Partners, Vasyl Kisil&Partners, GK Plant Solutions Ltd., East West Capital GmbH Kyiv, with trainers from the NAPA.   USAID plans to conduct three additional PPP training programs in other cities across Ukraine over the next eight months.  Additionally, this USAID PPP Project plans to launch a PPP website for Ukraine, to initiate a PPP Journal, to publish analyses of PPP projects and issues in Ukraine, to develop a Manual of PPP Guidelines for Ukraine, as well as to sponsor an international study tour to learn from PPP experiences in other leading European countries.   Currently a new PPP Law is under consideration by the VERKHOVNA RADA, and a number of Line Ministries, infrastructure agencies, and municipal governments are preparing plans to implement new PPPs.  According to the presenters at the PPP workshop, one of the most important next steps in Ukraine will be to identify, analyze and prepare a sufficient pipeline of candidate PPP projects. Since 1992, the USAID has provided USD 1.6 billion worth of technical and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to further the processes of democratic development, economic restructuring and social sector reform in the region.  Additional information about this and other USAID programs in Ukraine is available at the Department of Program Coordination, tel.  (044) 537-4600.