During the meeting, the participants discussed government policy on attracting private investment and mechanisms of public-private partnership in transport. Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov was presented with a number of projects that are being planned or carried out, including the reconstruction and development of Pulkovo Airport, the building of a high-speed Moscow-St Petersburg motorway, the construction of a bypass around Odintsovo under a concession agreement, and the construction of a Western expressway in St Petersburg.
Speaking at the meeting, Sokolov pointed out that a lack of investment in transport is leading to a shortage of investment in other spheres. In his opinion, to make the available investment more effective and attract additional funds, it is necessary to develop the public-private partnership on a large scale. Sberbank, VTB, VEB, EBRD and other domestic and foreign banks have already invested in infrastructure development projects and the re-equipment of the transport fleet.
In addition, investors have concluded 128 billion roubles worth of agreements – 73 billion on federal motorways and 55 billion on airports. Sokolov believes that private investors are primarily attracted to full-cycle concession agreements (designing, construction, maintenance, major repairs and operation). He reported that this pattern will be used to build sections of the high-speed Moscow-St Petersburg M11 Motorway, the Belarus M1 Motorway, a bridge across the Lena River, and an approach channel to the Taman Sea Port, and to establish a system of charging lorries over 12 tonnes.
Sokolov said that another important instrument of attracting extra-budgetary funds is the issue of bonds by design companies with state guarantees. He said 43 billion roubles of guarantees have already been provided for the projects on the Western Expressway and the Moscow-St Petersburg Motorway. The bonds were bought out by long-term investors that manage pension funds. Sokolov said that planned investment up to 2020 is expected to reach 7.3 trillion roubles or $240 billion from the budget, and five trillion roubles or $170 billion from different public-private partnership mechanisms.
Source: Ministry of Transport
