Lawyers of You & Partners took part in professional development program in PPP at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

29.03.2018

On 28 March 2018, partner in You & Partners Evgenia Zusman and lawyer in You & Partners Alexander Lykov took part in professional development program on “PPP territorial project management in the Russian Federation” arranged by the Department of Public-Private Partnership of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

Evgenia made a presentation on the “Prospects of applying PPP in IT sphere”.

This program was attended by representatives of the federal governmental authorities (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation), executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Finance and Tax Policy for the Novosibirsk Region, Department of Finance for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, Department of Property and Land Relations for the Lipetsk Region), as well as representatives of the Russian Highways State Company (Avtodor), PJSC Mostotrest, Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs and other organizations.

During her speech, Evgenia highlighted the current situation in the sphere of PPP project implementation in IT, dwelled upon the problems at concluding such agreements, introduced some vivid examples of specific PPP projects in IT, and also provided insight into legal precedents and foreign best practice in this field.

Citing Evgenia, “PPP projects in IT are now rather scarce, totaling as much as to 1% of the aggregate PPP projects implemented in Russia. The key reason, why PPP projects in IT have not got widespread use yet, is that at this stage IT assets are not in the list of subject matters of concessionary agreements and PPP/MPP agreements. To say more, industry specific legislation has not been adjusted for implementation of such projects either.”

Most pending projects are now those involving construction of highway facilities elements (parking, tolling points, photo and video capture systems and others).

The subject matter of such projects is necessarily a real property item to be constructed or renovated by the concessionary.

Implementation of PPP projects in IT is facing the problems of debt funding, banks being unwilling to finance projects with investments under 1 billion Rubles. Meanwhile, no packaged solutions have been tailored yet for financing IT projects.

Furthermore, Evgenia spoke of the upcoming amendments to PPP laws in the sphere of IT, being the draft law No. 157778-7 passed in its first reading by the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Pursuant to this statute, IT assets (software, database, DPC or data processing center, state information system (as subject matter of concession agreement only)) will be listed as the subject matters of concessionary agreements and PPP/MPP agreements.

To sum up, Evgenia once again brought to the notice of the audience the fact that the idea of PPP in IT sphere has a strong potential. It is already the case for IT infrastructure elements being created in multiple investment projects. In future, standalone IT projects are going to be much in demand, such as developing agricultural producers’ platforms, social platforms (disabled persons, orphaned children), telehealthcare projects and others. Passing the amendments to the laws on PPP and concessionary agreement will allow implementing projects in future in respect of immediate construction and operation of IT assets.

You & Partners Press Service

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