Today, October 29, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ukravtodor, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation in Ukraine presented the First Public-Private Partnership Program in the Road Industry: https://roadppp.in.ua/en/.

6 sections of roads with a total length of 1500 km, which were selected for potential PPP pilot projects, will be implemented under this Program in the first stage.

“The model proposed by the First Road PPP program will finally allow attracting private investors to the Ukrainian road infrastructure market. In the medium term, we will be able to attract more than US$ 9 billion in private investment to rehabilitate and maintain more than 4,500 km of public roads. This is not about toll roads, but about "roads in installments", when the state attracts private investment in construction, and the investor implements the project with his money and after putting the road into operation receives payments from the state. It benefits everyone. We already have the first successful examples of port concessions. Now we are working on the preparation of concession projects in the road sector," said Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Vladyslav Kryklii, opening the event.

The Head of the Ministry thanked the experts of the World Bank Group and the GIF for their contribution and efforts to the development of the Road PPP Program, as well as IFC and Ukravtodor for their assistance in organizing the event. A total of 310 participants from 43 countries and 38 companies of potential investors joined the presentation of the Program.

Vladyslav Kryklii stressed that currently the Ministry, together with the SPILNO PPP Project Management Office and the PPP Agency within the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, are making every effort to ensure the successful implementation of the Program. "International consultants engaged by the World Bank Group have already completed a preliminary feasibility study of 6 pilot road sections that have been selected for the first stage of this project and will be commissioned over the next 2 years," the Minister said.

Their list includes:

1 - current and capital repairs of the Kharkiv-Dnipro-Zaporizhia road (M-29, M-04, M-18). The estimated amount of initial investment is US$ 370 million.

2 - current repair of the Boryspil-Poltava road (M-03). The estimated amount of initial investment is US$ 180 million.

3 - reconstruction, capital and current repairs and construction of a new bypass of the settlement along the Kherson-Mykolayiv road (M-14). The estimated amount of initial investment is US$ 310 million.

4 - capital and current repairs of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr-Rivne road (M-06). The estimated amount of initial investment is US$ 370 million.

5 - reconstruction, current and capital repairs of the road Yahodyn-Kovel-Lutsk (M-07, M-19). The estimated initial investment is US$ 240 million.

6 - reconstruction, overhaul and construction of a new bypass of the settlement along the road Dnipro-Kryvyy Rih-Mykolayiv (M-04, H11). The estimated amount of initial investment is US$ 290 million.

“All projects envisage further maintenance of the road by the investor for the next 20-25 years. And these are additional investments that exceed severalfold the initial ones. The first 6 pilot projects were selected in such a way as to achieve the maximum economic effect from the invested funds and so that as many Ukrainians as possible felt the improvement of road infrastructure. After all, these highways connect 10 regions of Ukraine with more than 12 million people living there,” Vladyslav Kryklii added.

“Good roads are critical to sustainable socio-economic development. Sharing the Government's aspirations, IFC has every opportunity to help Ukraine transform the sector and attract international private investors. This will give Ukraine the opportunity to become a regional leader and become a logistics hub in Europe while providing competitive and quality transportation services to its citizens and businesses,” said Jason Pellmar, IFC Regional Manager for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

The event gathered together Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko, World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine) Arup Banerji, Ukravtodor Chairman Oleksandr Kubrakov, IFC Senior Investment Specialist Oleh Kudashov, head of SPILNO SP Project Development Office Taras Boychuk.