Bill on Public-Private Partnership publicized for discussion

A draft law "On public-private partnership" was posted on the portal of discussions of draft normative-legal acts. The document was developed by the Ministry of Finance.

The legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the field of public-private partnership (PPP) is based on the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan. It consists of the Civil Code, the present Law and other normative-legal acts of the republic.

If an international agreement, ratified by Uzbekistan, establishes other rules than those stipulated by the current Law, the international treaty rules shall apply.

The norms of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Public Procurement" do not apply to regulations related to identifying the private partnership, conclusion, execution and termination of the public-private partnership agreement, as well as consumption of goods, works and services conducted in accordance with the PPP agreement.

The requirements of the present document are not applicable to the PPP projects adopted by the President of Uzbekistan, the Government and (or) state programs before the adoption of the law.

The main goals of the PPP are:

encouraging economic growth and sustainable development of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

meeting the demand for a new social infrastructure;

restoration, exploitation and support of existing social infrastructure;

improving the quality and performance of social infrastructure;

enhancing the quality and accessibility of public services;

attraction of private investments, including foreign ones;

effective and accurate risk sharing between public and private sectors;

improvement of qualification;

increasing localization level in production;

use of experience, technology, know-how to develop infrastructure and provide public services;

effective use of budgets of the budget system.

PPP should comply with the following criteria:

having long term character;

execution of private partnership obligations, including design, construction, reconstruction, development, management, exploiting and maintenance of social infrastructure;

providing for PPP project funding by private partner;

distribution of risks and responsibilities between public and private partners.

Term of validity of the PPP should not be less than five years and not exceed 49 years.

The parties to the PPP can agree to extend the validity period of the agreement under the terms of the PPP.