Public-private partnerships can develop Romanian cities, said Mihai Precup, secretary of state with the Prime Minister's Chancellery, who met members of the Association of Romanian Municipalities at the Victoria Governmental Palace on Wednesday, informs Agerpres.
According to a press release sent to AGERPRES, the meeting focused on issues related to the implementation of public-private partnerships.
"During the meeting, we showed that we have a public-private partnership law, passed by Parliament and promulgated by the President, so that, starting this year, we have a modern legislative framework, which opened the way for the implementation of projects that can develop, in the most concrete way, the Romanian cities," said Mihai Precup.
According to him, once the legislative obstacle has been overcome, all that remains is for the local authorities to identify the needs they have and the necessary projects that can be developed in a public-private partnership system.
One of the issues discussed was the financing of projects carried out by local authorities in partnership with private companies, so the meeting presented a number of options available to local authorities, ranging from municipal bonds and pension fund financing to attracting funds from International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
"Pension funds are looking for investments to put their money in for the long term and secure investments with predictable cash-flow. In the pension funds regulation, 15% of the portfolio can be allocated to public-private partnership projects, which means around 3 billion euro, money that could be allocated to large infrastructure projects, investments for Romania," said Mihai Precup.
The state secretary assured the representatives of the local authorities of all the support they need from the central institutions to implement PPP projects.
"The Romanian Government, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, as well as central state authorities support local authorities and urge them to focus as much as possible on PPP projects, as Romania has a huge potential for development through this type of projects," he said.
The debate held on Tuesday was attended by members of the Association of Romanian Municipalities, officials and experts from the Financial Supervisory Authority, as well as consultants with expertise in public-private partnerships from IFC-World Bank.
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