Public-Private Partnership in the Real Dimension

Abstract

The idea of PPP as a way to attract private capital to socially significant projects in modern Russian realities is losing its relevance. The available data fail to provide a complete picture of the scale and dynamics of real business participation in PPP projects, as they lack statistics of actually implemented investments. Trends in formation and distribution of tax revenues observed in 2014-2018 objectively reduce the investment potential of private businesses and households. The continued centralization of tax revenues in upper level budgets contributes to growing attractiveness of joint public-private projects for regional and local authorities as an additional channel for attracting budget funds. Defects in the regulatory system create additional barriers to successful application of PPP. Legislative innovations in this area as well as creating new opportunities also introduce additional restrictions. An example of such a restriction is mandatory assessment of comparative advantage of PPP projects in relation to available alternatives. From an institutional point of view, examples of cooperation between government and business in “non-classical” quasi-PPPs are interesting. The analysis of two cases based on projects implemented in the Novosibirsk academic Park and in one of the rural areas of the Tomsk region gives an idea of potential results and risks for their participants, as well as external effects arising from the use of informal contracts in relations between local authorities and business.