In his address to the Federal Assembly, Vladimir Putin pointed out that extending the life expectancy of Russia’s population will be one of the main challenges during the next ten years. Life expectancy is a national indicator of a state’s socio-economic development and the quality of life of its citizens. It is evident that constant investments in social infrastructure development will be needed in order to fulfil the task set by the Russian President. In particular, during the next six years at least 3.4 trillion rubles will be allocated to measures of demographic development and the protection of motherhood and childhood. Moreover, the Russian Government has been tasked with creating a special programme of systemic support and improvement of the quality of life for the older generations. In particular, Vladimir Putin called for the creation of an environment for active and healthy longevity. It is equally important to make the newly created sociallyoriented projects accessible to disabled people and those with health limitations.

How should social infrastructure investments be optimised and made more efficient? What projects are private investors ready to finance, and which ones can only be implemented with state support? In what way do new standards of social services ensuring the new quality of life depend on the condition of the social infrastructure?

Moderator:

Svetlana Chupsheva, Chief Executive Officer, Agency for Strategic Initiatives

Panellists:

Galina Karelova, Deputy Chair of the Federation Council, Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation

Alexander Kobenko, Acting Deputy Governor – Minister of Economic Development, Investments and Trade of the Samara Region

Sergei Kraevoi, Deputy Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation Pavel Novikov, Deputy Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation

Pavel Seleznev, Chair, National Centre for Public-Private Partnership

Aleksey Sidnev, Chair of the Board, World of the Elderly

Viacheslav Sinugin, Counsel for Chairman, Vnesheconombank

Alexander Smekalin, Chairman of the Government of Ulyanovsk Region

In 2017, the issue of the informatisation of socially significant spheres at the expense of private resources was prioritised in the President’s instructions and in a governmental programme titled “Digital Economy”.

Although, according to the National PPP Development Centre, 32 PPP projects have been launched in the IT sphere since 2015, PPP legislation still offers no clear mechanisms for cooperation between state and private capital in this sector. Moreover, the existing models do not ensure transparency during the transfer of property from a private owner into state ownership, and vice versa. Early this year, a draft law recognising IT systems as objects of PPP and concessions passed its first reading in the State Duma, The authors of the amendments believe that making it possible to conclude PPP agreements for ICT projects will allow new private investments and new technologies to be attracted to the development of state information systems and the IT infrastructure, resulting in budgetary savings at different levels.

What are the ways to reduce state expenditure on developing the digital infrastructure and interest private investors in the continuousimprovement of IT objects, as well as beginning the progressive development of the PPP sphere, from property to telecoms? The trend of PPP in the telecoms sphere is evident overseas (in Germany, the US, the UK and France), where IT projects account for almost 10% of the overall volume of PPP.

Moderator:

Iskender Nurbekov, Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Legal Matters and Initiatives, Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF)

Panellists:

Kirill Varlamov, Head of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF)

Mikhail Kornev, Associate, LiniyaPrava Law Firm

Nadezhda Kostriukova, Project Director of the 'Smart City' Product Office of PJSC. 'Rostelecom'

Georgy Pchelintsev, Partner in Russian IP, IT and Telecommunications Practice, Dentons

Valeria Repkova, General Director, Agency for Project Initiatives Development

Alexey Semenov, Chair of the Board, Geoscan Group

Viktor Serebriakov, General Director, NCEM LLC

Sergey Yarosh, CEO, RT Project Technologies

In late December 2017, a decree of the Russian Government stipulated the list of agricultural objects that may be subject to concessions or PPP agreements. The list includes crop production and livestock farming (including both dairy and beef-stock farming), fishery, vegetable production, storage of grains and oil-bearing crops, vegetables, fruit, berries, etc.

This February, the Ministry of Agriculture presented a draft law to the State Duma with amendments to Federal Laws 115 and 224, aimed at making the manner of transfer of agricultural objects into concessions and PPP more precise. The authors of the draft law suggest leaving the aforementioned list open, by simply stipulating that a potential object should meet certain criteria. Although there is a need for further legislative improvements, pilot PPP projects in the agricultural sphere are expected to appear in the near future.

Moderator:

Vladimir Shaforostov, Partner, Agro-Industry, NEO Centre

Panellists:

Elena Bardasheva, Deputy Head of Infrastructure Projects and PPP Department, Gazprombank

Artem Belov, Executive Director, SouzMoloko

Vadim Erizhensky,  Deputy General Director, PRODIMEX LLC

Natalya Ivankova, Head of Department, Federal Agency for Fishery of the Russian Federation

Sergey Korolev, President, National horticultural Union

Ludmila Kuznetsova, General Director, "Agrohab" LLC

Anatoliy Kutsenko, Department Director, Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation

Elena Malinovskaya, Deputy Head of Countryside Social and Economic Development Department, Tomsk Region
Russian Agricultural Bank representative

Maksim Tkachenko, Executive Director, National Centre for Public-Private Partnership

Yury Tuktarov, Partner, LECAP

During the 2017 Russian PPP Week, the National PPP Development Centre, supported by the Federation Council and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, launched the Project Initiatives Support Programme – an accelerator aimed at selecting the most promising PPP projects planned for realisation in Russia’s regions. During the past year, over 500 initiatives have been presented within the framework of the programme, 200 of which have passed the initial examination and been advertised on the “ROSINFRA” Platform for the Support of Infrastructure Projects.

Strategic sessions were held in seven federal circuits, during which the best of the selected projects were presented to experts and potential partners. A number of the projects are already at the stage of realisation; some of the others were overhauled after the expert examination, others are now actively searching for investors and partners. The programmeis continuing its work in 2018, with initiatives from different regions of the country coming in on a weekly basis. During the roadshow, the three most promising projects will be presented to the investors. These projects are now ready to switch from the preparatory stage to searching for a private partner.

Moderator

Natalia Reznichenko, Deputy General Director for Strategic Development, Pervaya Kontsessionnaya Korporatsiya LLC

Experts:

Roman Belousov, Executive Director of "PLATNAJA DOROGA" LLC

Alexander Butovsky, Deputy General Director for Strategic Business Development, Institute Stroyproekt JSC

Svetlana Dubinchina, Counsel, LECAP

Aleksander Kondrashov, Director General, Avtodor-Invest LLC

Alexey Lazarev, Senior Manager of the Directorate for Transport and Infrastructure, Eurasian Development Bank

Sergey Luzan, Director, Transactions Advisory, EY

Anna Tarkhova, Marketing Director, PMA Agency

It is difficult to accurately forecast the future demand for any social infrastructure object at the construction stage. In healthcare, this process is even more complicated, because one needs to understand the commercial effect of every “client”, apart from forecasting the demand and keeping in line with the existing regulations regarding participation in programmes of state guarantees. As a result, the investors are not always ready to take up all the commercial risks. This creates the need for the state to provide a capital grant or to guarantee that the object of investment will have constant demand.

In addition, in most cases the investor bears the risks pertaining to the probable unforeseen growth of expenditure on construction and equipment of a healthcare project caused by inflation or currency fluctuations. This is why key investors in the PPP market are first of all interested in high-tech medical aid objects; despite the significant cost of creating such objects, the financial flows are easier to forecast and are more attractive for investors. The public partners often discover that the most complicated task is to find investors for less capital-intensive but more needed regional and municipal healthcare objects. And no matter the type of the object, the public partner bears a great risk pertaining to the quality of services provided to citizens when inviting a private partner to work in such a sensitive sphere, in which normally only the state operates.

Within the framework of a project lab and using federal and regional PPP projects as examples, it is suggested to elaborate an optimal model of risk allocation, ensuring both the repayment of investments and the satisfaction of state needs.

Moderator:

Maksim Tkachenko, Executive Director, National Centre for Public-Private Partnership

Panellists:

Alexander Isakov, Head of the implementation of the management of PPP projects GSK "VIS"

Andrey Kazutin, Director of the Department for Infrastructure Development and PPP, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation

Daria Kovaleva, Executive Director, Sberbank CIB

Vagan Kazaryan, Member of the Board, Sanitas LLC

Rumyana Svistunova, Deputy Minister of Investments and Innovations of Moscow Region

Maksim Simonov, Division Manager for PPP in Healthcare, Phillips

Maria Skryabina, Project Director, Infrastructure Projects and PPP Department, Gazprombank

Ilya Khaipov, Managing Director, Avtodor-Invest LLC

Andrey Tsvetkov, Minister of Healthcare of the Sverdlovsk Region

Roman Churakov, Senior Associate, Herbert Smith Freehills

Today there are certain complications around the transfer of cultural heritage objects into private ownership. In particular, this is caused by legislative restrictions stipulated in Federal Laws 115 and 224, which do not contain any specific provisions with regard to such projects.

In 2017, the Ministry of Culture prepared amendments to the aforementioned laws, taking into account the features of the renovation of cultural heritage objects. However, the draft law was criticised, and up until now there has been no progress with its improvement. One of the factors holding back the investors is limitations stipulated in the Law on Concession Agreements, making it impossible to change the functions of the reconstructed objects. However, on several occasions cultural heritage objects have been transferred within the framework of PPP. How did the partners circumvent the restrictions when launching the first projects? Does the existing legislation require fine-tuning? What measures, apart from legislative ones, should be taken so that projects of cultural heritage objects renovation can be fully realised within the framework of PPP?

Moderator:

Vasily Ovchinnikov, General Director of Mosgortur

Panellists:

Aleksey Zhuravskiy, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation

Oleg Ivanov, General Director, Roskultproekt

Sergei Kachaev, Deputy Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East

Denis Kachkin, the Managing Partner at Kachkin & Partners

Alexey Konyushkov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism

Anna Lukina,  Director of the Kaluga Region Center for PPP

Olga Mischenko, Head of Real Estate, Construction and PPP Practice, St. Petersburg office of EgorovPuginskyAfanasiev& Partners

Sergey Perov, General Director, GMVTS ROSIZO

Denis Saliy, Head of Kaliningrad Oblast Government representative office in the RF Federal Government

Elena Trubnikova, Chairwoman, Association of Medical Tourism

Johnson Khagazheev, Founder of  Akvaloo LLC

Representatives of the Russia’s regions

Yulia Lyubimova, General Director, Center for PPP Development of the Ulyanovsk Region

Taras Popov, Deputy Minister of Economy of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Zhanna Ustimenko, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Stavropol Territory

Igor Shlychkin, Head of the Branch of the Directorate for Management of  FTP ''Socially-economic development of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol until 2020'