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Regional Conference on Concessions and Public-Private Partnerships
Organised by
SIGMA,
Croatia’s Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship and
Croatia’s Agency for Public Private Partnerships
in Zagreb (Regent Esplanade Hotel)
on 03-04 December 2009
Over the course of the last few years, the subject of concessions and PPPs has become a highly topical and sometimes controversial area of government. It now has the capacity to attract media attention and public debate.
It is often thought of by some as a creative accounting trick to defer government borrowing liabilities. Equally there are others who think of it as a sensible means of procuring good value for money projects and services on behalf of taxpayers and a successful method of reforming the delivery of public services in a wide variety of public sectors, but in particular related to infrastructure projects.
What is beyond dispute is the capacity of private finance and the management of public services to bring forward infrastructure projects and improvements to public services much sooner than would be the case using a conventional budget funding methodology.
The current financial climate has raised issues about the availability of finance, but has also seen increased interest in PPPs and concession projects in the context of constraints in public budgets. The long-term affordability of such projects, however, still needs to be given careful consideration.
In many of the candidate and future candidate countries, there is an acknowledgement that the private sector has a part to play in the construction or reconstruction including management and operation of public assets that will be essential for European integration and economic growth. Indeed, there is already concession and PPP activity in many of these countries.
The objective of the conference is to discuss the above mentioned reform needs in the concessions/PPPs sectors, with particular reference to the Stabilisation & Association process (SAp) and EU harmonisation.
Conference Papers
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