On March 15 of this year, the Head of State signed the Law on improving budget legislation, within the framework of which amendments were made, among other things, concerning public-private partnerships. At the site of the Central Communications Service, the Chairman of the Board of JSC «Kazakhstan Center for Public-Private Partnership» Aslan Kaligazin spoke about how the procedure for implementing PPP projects will be improved.

According to the speaker, an important amendment concerns a change in the approaches to the use of two-stage and one-stage competitions. Until now, two-stage competitions have practically not been held in Kazakhstan, with the rare exception of some PPP projects at the national level.

«At the same time, international financial organizations, on the contrary, point to the need for a two-stage selection. This type of selection is considered the best practice for determining a private partner by choosing the best technological and financial solutions at the first and second stages of the competition. Thus, within the framework of these amendments, it is envisaged to transfer all PPP projects, including the design and construction of a PPP facility, to two-stage procedures», said the head of the Kazakhstan Center for Public-Private Partnership.

In addition, the amendments provide for a reduction in the requirements for potential private partners to invest in the project of their own capital from 20% to 10%. According to the speaker, this amendment reduces barriers to participation in competitions, simplifies entry into the market for those companies that cannot allocate a large amount of their own funds, but at the same time have the competence and capabilities to implement the planned PPP projects.

Also, the need for a potential private partner to «freeze» these funds in their accounts to pass the qualification selection at the stage of competitive procedures has been eliminated. That is, confirmation of these funds is necessary only after the conclusion of the PPP agreement.

«In order to improve the quality of project development, accreditation of organizations providing consulting and expert services in the field of PPP is being introduced. Accreditation will be carried out by the Ministry of National Economy in accordance with the requirements approved by it, excluding the evaluative nature of the procedure. I would like to dwell separately on the amendments to the implementation of the «software PPP» mechanism, which allows for a reduction in project planning time and state budget expenditures on their development and examination by optimizing procedures and using standard documentation. Thus, with the help of software PPP, industry central government agencies can determine the basic parameters of PPP projects. They will be able to independently approve the rules for determining a private partner and concluding a PPP agreement, as well as ready-made standard packages of documents for holding a competition for replicated PPP projects, taking into account industry specifics,» – noted Aslan Kaligazin.

At the moment, such industry rules and standard documents have been approved for the implementation of replicated projects for the construction and operation of schools, dormitories and clinics. Similar documents in the fields of education, healthcare, social protection of the population, sports and ecology are at the development and approval stage.

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/economy/press/news/details/973000?lang=kk