The WB infrastructure team comprised of William Dachs, Senior Infrastructure PPP Specialist, Christophe Bosch, Infrastructure Sector Coordinator for Central Asia and Rinat Iskhakov, Operations Analyst brought together the representatives of the government agencies dealing with infrastructure and municipal issues, development partners and Project implementation units to discuss legal, regulatory, institutional, fiscal risk management issues, and potential pilot transactions.

In his introductory speech Loup Brefort, the WB Country Manager for Uzbekistan, outlined the ongoing Bank support to infrastructure and municipal services in Uzbekistan. Representatives of UNDP and the Chamber of commerce project on PPT shared their findings on Problems, Opportunities and Ways of Introduction of PPP in Uzbekistan.

Discussion was built around such issues as Global overview of recent developments in PPP and international experience in establishing and operating PPP frameworks and units; PPP versus pure public finance options; use of PPPs in municipal infrastructure services; fiscal impact of PPPs: risk management framework; management of contingent liabilities etc.

The round table ended by discussing the ways forward and questions and answers session.

In the past decade, many developing countries initiated major infrastructure sector reforms that separated policy making from service delivery and promoted projects with various forms of private sector participation or public private partnerships These projects were implemented under a range of approaches varying from management contracts to concessions to divestitures to greenfield build-operate-transfer or build-operate-own projects. This range reflects a continuum of increasing allocation of risk to the private sector

Well-designed arrangements for private participation or PPPs allow commercial discipline to be introduced in the delivery of infrastructure services, thereby improving efficiency and lowering costs. As governments considered more efficient use of PPP techniques to help mobilize additional private capital and management into infrastructure development, they must acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to successfully implement these programs.