Brussels, 09/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - With more than €300 billion-worth of investment to make in utilities in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries by 2030 (water management, energy, urban services and so on), non-EU Mediterranean countries will have to boost their capacity to mobilise the private sector and become more attractive to foreign direct investment and therefore the EIB fund responsible for the nine non-EU Mediterranean countries, FEMIP, has launched an ambitious technical assistance programme to encourage the use of public-private partnerships (PPP) in the Mediterranean area. The first stage of the programme took the form of a workshop in Paris, France, on Thursday 10 February at the OECD headquarters, a workshop that put the finishing touches to research into the legal and financial PPP situation in FEMIP countries.
The results of the research will be published at the end of next month. Experience of PPP in the region is assessed, along with legal, administrative and financial issues preventing PPP in each of the nine countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Lebanon). The research addresses a series of recommendations on how to develop PPP in the Mediterranean and will be followed up by an assessment of PPP potential in partner countries. For each of them, FEMIP will draw up operational recommendations and help them implement policies to encourage the use of PPP in one or more areas decided upon by FEMIP and the countries themselves. In each of the four countries selected, FEMIP will then set out terms of reference for an additional technical assistance project for defining and managing a call for tender for a series of pilot projects carrying out priority investment in the PPP areas identified in the previous stage. The EIB may consider setting up special technical assistance, in collaboration with other financial institutions active in developing the Mediterranean area, related to one or more of the outcomes of the research for any of the five countries that are not given a full PPP aid programme. Workshops and conferences are planned to spread best practice, such as a FEMIP conference on PPP in Casablanca, Morocco, on 30 May and workshops between June 2011 and May 2012. (O.L./transl.fl)