Designing state-private partnership in modernized economy

Abstract

Public-private partnership is a relatively new but very promising tool to modernize the Russian economy. The existing regulatory framework in Russia for the public-private partnership projects remains incomplete. Gaps and shortcomings in the law will always be, any law is not perfect and can be improved indefinitely. The Federal Law "On Concession Agreements" is no exception. However, many legal gaps which are characteristic for the existing regulatory and legal framework for public-private partnerships can be eliminated or narrowed due to more detailed project preparation. The industry-specific public-private partnerships' peculiarities especially need to be clarified as well as stages of preparation of concession agreements, the contents of contracts, the order of cash payments etc. We should agree with the position of those economists who believe that an important feature of public-private partnership in Russia could become the concept of "the state is following business," referring to the joint efforts to overcome the infrastructure constraints in the implementation of specific strategic projects. However, in the traditional sense, the public-private partnership demonstrates the opposite, i.e. it is characterized by the concept of "business follows the state", based on which the state is making some efforts to attract private capital into infrastructure development. A certain set of problems and risks of building public-private partnerships in Russia has already formed; they not only form some of its content specificity, but also inhibit its spreading across the country. The experts distinguish the following frequent problems and risks: - High level of corruption, which determines significant risk to comply with the partnership agreements; - Unfavorable and not perfect legal environment for the formation and development of public-private partnership; - Low level of confidence in the economy and society in general. Of particular importance to improve the efficiency of public-private partnership in Russia today is the development of broad competition. Preservation of old relations, exclusive access to the participation in the most profitable public-private partnership projects does not stimulate the development of cooperation between business and government.

Keywords

• private-public partnership
• modernization of the economy
• competitiveness of the country and regions