The Belarusian Economy Ministry has moved the deadline for submitting applications for the positions of the head and senior specialists of the national center for public private partnership till 17 March. 

The Economy Ministry attributed the move to the need to attract as many contenders as possible in order to choose the most qualified and promising candidates. So far eight people have submitted their applications for the position of the head of the center, with 15 applicants vying for the positions of four senior specialists.

The Belarusian public private partnership center will be created as part of a project involving the Belarusian Economy Ministry, the European Union and the UNDP. The EU/UNDP project has apportioned quite sufficient resources for developing the potential and for training the selected people.

The project is designed to bolster the national potential for applying public private partnership mechanisms, with the total budget close to $1.1 million. Proposals to amend the relevant laws have been developed and are being discussed already.

The national center for public private partnership is supposed to be established as part of the research institute of the Economy Ministry by 1 January 2015. A discussion is in progress to decide whether the agency should be independent or whether it should be part of the Economy Ministry or the Finance Ministry.

Yesterday, we published that the Belarusian public-private partnership (PPP) week will take place in Minsk on 27-29 May.