The article considers public-private partnership as one of the technologies of the GR-manager in the innovation sphere. The main accent is made on legal obstacles preventing effective interaction of private business and state authorities in the process of projects implementation of public-private partnership in the sphere of innovations.
Key words: public-private partnership, innovation, innovative development, innovative product, innovative infrastructure, the result of innovation, development institute.
According to the foreign experience, one of the effective methods of economic stimulation of innovation is public-private partnership (hereinafter referred to as PPP) in the field of science and innovation. In many OECD countries, PPP projects account for an increasing share of government budgets for science and technology. Analysis of 48 projects implemented under the PPP schemes conducted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe showed that 80 % of such projects were sold below the estimated budget and 60 % of the projects were completed earlier than planned, with improved service and reduced usage fees [1, p. 78].
In Russia, public-private partnership is regulated basing on two fundamental legal acts: Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 13, 2015 No. 224-FZ «About public-private partnership, municipal and private partnership in the Russian Federation and modification of separate legal acts of the Russian Federation» and Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 21, 2005 No. 115-FZ «About concessionary agreements» which was amended in July 2014. These acts define the policy of PPP in Russia in general terms and indicate the presence of the beginnings of «political will» for the implementation of the PPP mechanism. [2,3]
However, it is worth underlining that the legal framework laid down for regulating the implementation of PPP projects so far requires substantial enhancement, which will make the mechanism effective.
Further consideration should be given to adjacent bodies of law, (for instance tax law, legislation in tariff policy) and development of legislation not solely at the federal level, but also at the level of the states.
PPP in Russia, as a rule, is focused on infrastructure projects that require the accumulation of large amounts of financial resources for a long-term period. PPP in the innovation area reflects the specific interaction between government and private business, aimed at achieving the goals of innovation development at the macro, regional and micro level through the implementation of projects and programs in the innovation sphere.
In the Russian Federation, unlike many foreign countries, overwhelming majority of scientific researches is financed by the state because of the high risk of innovation activity, as well as the need for large-scale financial investments.
In this connection, the possibility and the necessity of the PPP mechanism development in the innovation sphere becomes a topical and vibrant issue. Nevertheless, currently there is no detailed legal regulation of both innovation and PPP spheres. This fact significantly impedes the development of cooperation between the state and private business.
While applying PPP mechanisms several problems can be identified:
‒ Federal Law of the Russian Federation of August 23, 1996 No. 127-FZ «About science and the state scientific and technical policy» it is the regulatory act in the sphere of innovation. However, the law fails to regulate the innovative projects implementation, which significantly complicates the participation of private sector. A similar lack of legislative framework is typical for the sphere of PPP. [4]
‒ The law on concession agreements contains a closed list of potential objects of agreements, which creates obstacles to the conclusion of concession agreements on innovative products.
‒ Some forms of PPP, suitable for infrastructure projects, cannot be used to implement projects in the field of innovation.
In addition to general objectives such as the development of innovations, the creation of an «innovative elevator» and the modernization of the economy, PPP also has more certain goals related to the implementation of concrete projects.
PPP projects in innovation field are primarily focused on:
‒ Creation of an innovative infrastructure;
‒ Creation of an innovative product (including its use in infrastructure projects).
It seems that the full advantage of the PPP mechanism can be taken in creating an innovative infrastructure. First, these projects can be classified as infrastructure projects, which conforms to the modern legislation. Secondly, regarding the innovation infrastructure, it is possible to create, reconstruct, finance, operate, maintain it; these activities are mandatory elements of the PPP agreement. Third, creation of an innovative infrastructure can be attributed to socially significant projects, since they are aimed at the enhancement of goods and services and modernizing the economy.
Thus, PPP projects can be focused on the creation of innovative centers, because it is the easiest way to attract private investments to projects of this kind, since these infrastructure facilities create the conditions for cooperation between higher education institutions and private partners with the aim of creating an innovative product and further its commercialization.
As for the innovative products, the use of PPP mechanisms, taking into account the current Russian legislation, is feasible only with respect to real estate and transport (excluding the subway).
In order to refer the movable property and the results of intellectual activity (hereinafter referred to as RID) to the PPP objects, it is necessary to determine to what extent this corresponds to the objectives pursued by the state. Especially it concerns those cases when the creation of movable property or RID is the only goal of the project. At the same time, it is necessary to outline whether the creation of innovative products is consistent with the goals pursued by the state. The law on PPP states that its purpose is to create legal conditions for attracting investments in the economy of the Russian Federation and improving the quality of goods, works, services. In this connection, the creation of innovative products can be considered as a component of the improvement of any product, work or service, which can be considered as one of the state responsibilities.
Although the social importance of innovation in the modern world is extremely high, sometimes innovation projects seem unattractive to a private investor because of the high degree of risk. That is why the implementation of innovative projects based on PPP enables the state to provide consumers with innovative products. At the same time, some of the risks of a private investor in this case can be assumed by development institutions, for example, by providing financing on more favorable terms.
Moreover, the efficiency of the functioning of PPPs is provided by the legal framework in the sphere of PPP regulating the partners' relations, their rights and duties. Russian legal regulation is based on a division into economic spheres: special economic zones of technical-innovative type, i.e. economic zones within which the creation and sale of scientific and technical products take place, are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation; the regulation of science cities is within the competence of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and the technology parks — the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation. The current situation witnesses a departmental disunity and the lack of a unified institutional environment. The state holds the key to the overcoming these obstacles as it should eliminate systemic flaws and stimulate the development of innovative activities.
In addition, owing to the strict state hierarchy many major PPP projects are managed through «manual management». Considering that projects of public-private ownership, as a rule, it takes from 10 to 50 years to execute. In this situation, the main efforts are focused on the implementation of projects with a political component.
Nevertheless, Russian government takes measures to alter the situation in a positive way. For example, several institutes have been set up to develop PPP, including the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation, the State Corporation «Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs» (Vnesheconombank), the Russian Venture Company, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives to promote new projects.
Development institutes, as an instrument of public policy, serve to stimulate innovative processes and infrastructure development using PPP mechanisms.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the activities of development institutes are aimed at the following tasks:
‒ Elimination of «quasi-innovations»;
‒ Development of economic and social infrastructure;
‒ Elimination of institutional failures in the market of innovations due to the formation of missing segments of the market;
‒ Support for small and medium-sized businesses;
‒ Elimination of regional imbalances in development through the projects in the transport, housing and utilities and energy sectors. [5]
As it was mentioned earlier, the main problem that prevents government from the use of PPP in the innovation sphere is the limited nature of objects of PPP agreements. Although the PPP law does not prohibit its use for innovative projects, since innovative products do not always refer to real estate objects, the use of PPP mechanisms is noticeably limited, even though most innovative projects are socially significant.
The Law on Concession Agreements, in its turn, contains a closed list of facilities, which do not include innovative products and innovation infrastructure. In order to effectively use PPP, it is vitally necessary to incorporate such notion as innovation product to the PPP law and the law on concession agreements, indicating the need for the project to meet socially significant goals.
There are a lot of problems in applying the PPP mechanism in general, which should be solved in a complex manner. In the opinion of Anikina V. P. and Abasov RG, only general conditions for the functioning of PPP technology have been created in the Russian Federation, and the key problems are: the lack of a real market for high-quality PPP projects, restrictions on leverage, the state's unwillingness to assume risks and responsibilities for PPP projects — remain unresolved. [6, p.50] Nevertheless, the rapid development of PPP projects in Europe demonstrates the effectiveness of such a model of interaction between business and government, and, respectively, the solution of these problems, as well as the development of a specialized legislative framework regulating the interaction of participants in the innovation process within PPPs, can lead to the activation of innovative processes.
References:
- Larin S. N. Public-private partnership: foreign experience and Russian realities // Public-private partnership in innovative systems / Ed. S. N. Silvestrov. — Moscow: LKI Publishing House, 2008. — 312 P.
- Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 13, 2015 No. 224-FZ «About public-private partnership, municipal and private partnership in the Russian Federation and modification of separate legal acts of the Russian Federation»
- Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 21, 2005 No. 115-FZ «About concessionary agreements»
- Federal Law of the Russian Federation of August 23, 1996 No. 127-FZ «About science and the state scientific and technical policy»
- Development institutions performance // The official site of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. URL: http://economy.gov.ru/minec/activity/sections/instdev/institute/
- Akinina V. P., Abasov R. G. Public-private partnership as a catalyst for innovation processes // Finance and credit. — 2013. — No. 9. — P. 45–50.
