After only 24 hours at home back on the road again. Destination: Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan and definitely one of my favourite destinations. I have enjoyed coming here already since 2013. Here you truly experience the change of seasons. Springtime, when the city turns greens and all its flowers start flourishing. The summers, warm but not humid, when you can sit outside enjoying a meal and drinks and enjoy the view of the nearby mountain range. Autumns that feel like Indian summers and when the various parks get their typical fall color palette. And the winter season when you can experience some old-fashioned snow and a fresh chilling freeze on your face. And Bishkek is unique in that you hardly need to use a car to get around. I can walk to nearly all my stakeholders, mostly through well-designed parks and streets with soviet-style architecture and sculptures. People are warm, friendly and introvert and I had some memorable evenings with my clients and team mates typically lavished with wodka (sometimes too much) and good stories.
This week however was mostly work with several meetings scheduled to discuss the progress in the development of the PPP framework for the country. After a slow start in 2013 we have been able to get the main elements for a PPP Framework in place. A PPP Law in line with international practices to enable PPP project and guide its preparation and implementation. A Project Development Support Fund to facilitate project preparation. A range of government officials that had received training and were assigned to coordinate and support the development of PPP projects. A list of possible PPP projects emerged over time of which several were assessed through feasibility studies and which resulted in 3 contracts being awarded. Unfortunately the progress had stalled in 2018 when ADB had to reduce its technical assistance to the government. Luckily ADB was able in 2019 to retain the team of consultants again to reinvigorate the PPP program. And the government indeed re-booted its PPP program. A new PPP Law was adopted - although not quite an improvement from the earlier PPP Law - and a new more autonomous PPP Centre was established.
The meeting with the new director of the PPP Unit, Daniiar Abdyldaev and his Deputy Meder Tumanov confirmed that there was indeed a fresh wind blowing. The PPP center is now fully staffed with 15 specialists. The PPP pipeline has been updated and includes some 5 projects scheduled to be awarded this year (low hanging fruit), a further 8-10 which are under preparation and the intention to identify a further 20 projects. A high-level conference is being planned with likely involvement of the Prime Minister to launch the center, the program and the pipeline. Furthermore the capacity building continues with further CP3P trainings. All in all, very impressive and promising.
We agreed that we would focus the coming period on updating the operational guidelines for the identification, preparation and tendering of PPP projects based on the 2015 version, including the necessary provision for the management of the fiscal risks. We, that is myself together with my good old friends Bakyt Kartanbaev and Tolkun Shakeev who are together on this since the very beginning in 2013. We had a team meeting to discuss our approach and agreed on the allocation of work. Furthermore I caught up with Mirdin Esheliev from ADB’s resident mission and had a meeting with another ADB team of consultants who are working on preparing the possible implementation of E-tolling based on PPP. A very promising concept that looks to be quite suitable for PPP though some further analysis is required. And last but not least I was introduced to the new staff of the PPP Centre. Some familiair faces including Gavhar Ashirova and Karatai Dzhangeldiev but mostly new faces. All young, enthusiastic and full of ideas. Look forward to working with them.
Had the early flight out of Bishkek and back home for the weekend for some quality time with the family. Next week working from home.
Comments