Last updated: 3 November 2017
Loredana Van de WAART, Partner, was one of the key speakers of the fourth Foreign Investors Summit (FIS), the 3-day exclusive business event organized by Business Review between October 31 – November 2, 2017, in Bucharest.
She spoke about the potential of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to unlock investments in the transport and infrastructure sectors and underlined the fact that PPPs could help Romania improve its road infrastructure by attracting private companies in massive infrastructure projects.
Find out the main statements made during the conference by Loredana Van de WAART registered by Business Review:
“The issue of infrastructure projects in Romania is the poor management. PPPs could help but even if here we will have a bad management from the public side on this initiative (…) today it is very important for public partners to train staff so as to handle this better.”
Today we have a PPP law that answers market demands, but up to date there is no project that has kicked off.
The leaders of PPPs are the UK, France and The Netherlands. Most projects are in infrastructure, healthcare and digital connections.
The financing of PPPs should not be a problem in Romania, said the partner, citing the funding opportunities from international financial institutions.
Today there is an investment blockage due to lack of labor force, which is also due to the healthcare system issues, the problems in education and infrastructure, said Van de Waart who suggested that PPPs could contribute to the improvement of these systems.
“The simple adoption of a government ordinance will not automatically lead to the initiation or conclusion of PPPs in a successful manner,” said the partner.
“For years, some significant steps have been made (in Romania – e.n.) for the construction of hospitals through PPPs. Meanwhile, in Turkey some 5 hospitals have been built through PPPs,” said the lawyer.
“The sovereign fund is not a bad thing it itself, but the fund will have to invest so good as to afford projects because it is not a bank,” said Van de Waart.
She suggested that the sovereign fund could work but it would need a private administrator.
Live text FIS 2017 – Main statements from Day 2.
http://www.business-review.eu/news/live-text-fis-2017-main-statements-from-day-2-151309