On the 19th of October, a tripartite civil law agreement between the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, USPA and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was signed. It regulates the cooperation of the parties regarding the preparation and structuring of concession projects of the first and container terminals as well as the concession of the railway-ferry complex of the SE «Sea Commercial Port «Chornomorsk» and the corresponding property of USPA, associated with these terminals.
According to the document, EBRD agrees to enter into a cooperation agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which will act as Chief adviser for these projects and to provide the Ministry of Infrastructure and the USPA with a Work plan for the projects. It will also select and involve advisors to develop the feasibility study and tender documentation for project implementation and will cover the costs of their involvement.
At the same time, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine undertakes responsibilities of a purely non-financial nature, namely to initiate and conduct a competitive tender process to determine the private partner for each project, as well as to include in the tender documentation a legally binding provision stating that the winner of the tender competition (the private partner) must reimburse EBRD the expenditure stipulated by the contract.
The railway-ferry complex is a separate structural subdivision of the SE «Sea Commercial Port «Chornomorsk». It is the only terminal in Ukraine that specializes in servicing railway and auto-ferry lines, as well as ro-ro-type vessels. The project envisages the modernization of existing capacities of the railway-ferry complex. Preparation of the concept note of the project was completed in 2018. By the order of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine of 02.01.2018, № 3 “On the preparation of feasibility studies of pilot concession projects in the field of infrastructure”, a decision was proclaimed to proceed with the development of a feasibility study.
The first and container terminal in Chornomorsk concession project envisages the reconstruction of existing facilities of the transshipment complex and the modernization of transshipment machinery. On the 16th of April, a consortium of consultants led by the company Castalia Advisors presented the results of a study conducted by experts from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with the support of the Global Infrastructure Fund (GIF). Based on the results of the study, the PPP Agency with the support of the PPP Project Management Office SPILNO (an independent advisory body to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine) has prepared a concept note for the project.
It should be noted that the aforementioned concession projects of the first and container terminals were included in the List of objects subject to concession in 2020-2023, approved by the order of the Ministry of Infrastructure of December 1, 2020, № 805, pursuant to the third subparagraph of the subparagraph «д» of paragraph 1 of Article 1 of the Decree of the President of Ukraine of November 8, 2019 №837 «On urgent measures to reform and strengthen the state». Additionally, these projects are included in the List of priority investment projects for the state until 2023, approved by the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 16, 2020, № 1581-r.