French companies ready for PPP projects in Serbia

BELGRADE - French companies are ready to take part in the projects of public-private partnerships (PPP) in Serbia and help local self-governments solve infrastructural problems through this investment model, officials stated at the annual French-Serbian economic summit on PPP.

Regional Director of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Andreas Beikos said that Serbia has a good legislative framework for the realisation of these projects, but it needs to work on their implementation.

The biggest challenge Serbia is facing lies in strengthening the preparatory part of PPP projects and boosting institutional capacities, Beikos said.

He noted that PPP projects are important in the context of Serbia's European integration process, especially in the sector of environmental protection, and added that EIB maintains a neutral stand toward PPP projects and does not either encourage or discourage them, and instead provides assistance in the project realisation on a case-to-case basis.

French expert on PPP projects Bernard Atlan noted that the government should work on encouraging the private sector to invest in services of public interest through PPP projects in areas such as water supply and sewage systems, parking service and similar.

Serbian State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy Dragan Stevanovic noted that the PPP model is still in its initial development stages in Serbia and that it is still not fully exploited as a resource. He noted that in case the potential of the PPP model is recognised, prospects for success in the area are huge.

The summit is organised by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED), Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Department on Economy of the French Embassy in...