THE DEADLINES for the private-public partnership (PPP) highway construction projects have had to be delayed by five to nine months due to the global financial downturn Transport Minister Ľubomír Vážny said at a press conference on April 27, the TASR newswire reported.
“The crisis has caused certain problems but the positive thing is that, unlike neighbouring countries, we’ve got the PPP projects to the final phase,” Vážny said, adding that the ministry could not have predicted the emergence of the crisis in late 2008. He also explained that due to a lack of liquidity in the banking sector additional discussions had to be held with the winning bidders.
The second PPP package to construct the R1 dual carriageway has good prospects of assembling the needed finances by June 2009 which would allow the construction to be launched in July 2009. On the other hand, the process in the D1 highway construction in the first PPP package has been slowed, said Vážny, as reported by TASR. The winner of the third package tender is expected to be announced in June.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) does not see any problem that would prevent it from co-financing the roads' construction in Slovakia via PPP projects, said Francois Lecavalier, the EBRD director for Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia, TASR reported.
