On June 11–12, the Forum “Start of the Public-Private Partnership Market: From Idea to Agreement” was held at the Event Space of the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine, organized by the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine and the Academy of Public-Private Partnership. The event became a platform for dialogue, exchange of experience, and development of practical approaches to the application of public-private partnership mechanisms for the development of urban infrastructure.
In total, 53 initiatives were submitted for consideration by communities, from which 5 project ideas were selected for further development within the framework of the Hackathon "PPP Solutions Laboratory":
- "Transformation of an overloaded MSW landfill into an environmentally safe facility with elements of recycling" (Mostyska community, Lviv region)
- "Implementation of a comprehensive accounting system for centralized water supply services" (Ladyzhynska community, Vinnytsia region)
- "STATION HUB" (Smilyaska community, Cherkasy region)
- "Municipal Energy Island" (Yarunska community, Zhytomyr region)
- "Creation of a modern inclusive sports and tourism complex, incl. for the rehabilitation of veterans” (Znamyanska community, Kirovohrad region).
On the first day, community teams, together with business, specialists from UkrEximbank and the PPP Academy, structured their ideas for their implementation under the terms of public-private partnership and prepared powerful presentations for business and investors to familiarize themselves with during the second day of the Forum.
During the discussions, it became obvious that two project ideas — the creation of a STATION HUB based on the historical station building and the construction of a modern recreational and sports complex — have high potential for implementation provided that grant funding is attracted. For projects of such a social and socially significant direction, the prospects for receiving donor support look quite realistic.It is important that thanks to the Forum, these ideas were properly structured and prepared for substantive discussion with potential donors and partners. A solid foundation has been created for further search for funding and the transition from concepts to practical implementation.
Three of the proposed project ideas are completely ready for the next step is to prepare a Concept Note. This concerns projects in the field of electricity, household waste management and smart metering in the field of water supply and sanitation. It was nice to see the high quality of the preliminary structuring of these projects, which are characterized by innovation, a comprehensive approach and have a high potential for scaling in other communities of Ukraine.
After lengthy discussions, the commission identified a project that received grant support for the preparation of a concept note and competition documentation. It was the project “Municipal Energy Island” of the Yarun community. The victory was ensured by a strong vision of the community’s energy sustainability, the complexity of the proposed solution and a high level of community representation in the team. It is symbolic that the smallest community among the finalists demonstrated the most ambitious and well-developed model of attracting private business to develop the energy supply system of its critical infrastructure – schools, hospitals, other budget-funded buildings.
