NCE and the Ministry of Health reported on the preparation of pilot projects in the healthcare sector with the use of PPPs

At the site of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan "Atameken", chaired by the Deputy Chairman of NCE Yuliya Yakupbaeva and co-chaired by Vice-Minister of Health and Social Development of the RK Elzhan Birtanov was held the first meeting of the working group on the development of PPP in healthcare.

All regions, representatives of the Ministry of Health, Ministries of National Economy, Finance, JSC "Kazakhstan PPP Center", Ltd "PPP support center", National Health Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan participated in the event, which was held in the format of a videoconference.

Opening the meeting, Yuliya Yakupbaeva put emphasis on the main problems hindering the development of PPPs: a long process of negotiation of projects, the lack of coverage of investor risk, measures of state support and guaranteed sales. According to the deputy chairman of the board of NCE, first of all, it is necessary to reduce the time and to simplify the procedures for implementation of PPP projects. "As a result of our analysis of the existing legal framework in the field of public-private partnerships, all the stages of procedures from planning of PPP projects to the signing of the PPP contracts takes a long time. In total, the process of preparation of documents, passage of examinations and competition takes more than 300 days. This reduces the attractiveness of the project", - said Yuliya Yakupbaeva.

In addition, the Deputy Chairman of NCE RK stressed that the procedure of determining the winner is complex and opaque. The winner is selected based on criteria 12, for each of which will be used the formula. It's too complicated. The selection process of the winner should be clear to all stakeholders.

In this regard, Yuliya Yakupbaeva voiced proposals of the National Chamber on simplification of pasage procedures and enhance the attractiveness of PPP projects for potential investors. In particular, she noted the need for a parallel examination of the documents for PPP projects with the concerned authorities, to reduce the time of passage procedures, to expand the range of financial agents of the State for the examination of the PPP concept and tender documentation through the involvement of private entities (financial institutions, accounting and consulting firms). It is necessary to prepare a clear reminder for entrepreneurs with a clear description of PPPs.

"We are confident that the experience of the successful implementation of the pilot projects will be cascaded to the regions of the country and give impetus to the implementation of PPPs", - said the deputy head of the board of NCE.

Vice-Minister of Health and Social Development Elzhan Birtanov, in turn, thanked NCE RK for productive dialogue on issues of PPP development. He said what measures on development of public-private partnership in Kazakhstan were provided by the Ministry of Healthcare.

"We have developed a Road Map for Development of PPP in the health system for 4 years. First of all, it provides for the improvement of existing procedures to attract private companies to provide services SGBP and compulsory social health insurance. At the moment, we are developing rules of selection and contracting of health care providers in the health insurance system. The project will be formed before the end of the week, and then sent to NCE for discussion and agreement, especially with the representatives of private clinics, as there is a lot of criticism that because of public hospitals, private traders are not allowed. We want to fix it", - he said.

Birtanov listed several areas of public-private partnership. "The first direction is construction and subsequent management by a private investor, in accordance with the law "On PPP" and the law " On concessions ". The deputy head of the Ministry of Health agrees with Yuliya Yakupbaeva that there are problems in their implementation - a long process of preparation, examination of projects, availability of financing and tariff issues, and financial modeling. "Replication of the pilot projects will significantly reduce the time", - he said.

The second direction the state official called the transfer of state medical facilities in trust. "The idea is that we want to give the opportunity to our citizens to choose freely the clinic in the health insurance system. Not as it is now: in the public - it is free and in the private – it is toll. The compulsory health insurance system, if a person choses a private clinic, the health insurance fund will pay for it. Accordingly, we are interested in it, so that more private clinics work with the Health Insurance Fund. Today, only about 9% of the money of the state are used to cover medical services, are placed in the private sector. It is very small. We want this amount to double at least in the next three years ", - he explained.

The issue of transfer of individual divisions, not of all medical facilities in private management, is considered.

Summing up the meeting, Deputy Chairman of NCE RK Y. Yakupbaeva proposed to create a project group of the members of the Working Group to optimize the procedure of approval of PPP projects in the health care sector. It was also decided to identify pilot projects in the following areas: construction, reconstruction and modernization, service contract and transfer in trust management.