BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 17. Azerbaijan's
experience demonstrates the importance of flexible public-private
partnership (PPP) models in the housing sector, the Director of PwC
Azerbaijan, Gunel Sadiyeva, said during the Business Assembly
session dedicated to public-private partnerships, held within the
framework of WUF13 in Baku, Trend reports.


According to her, a model emerged across the post-Soviet space,
including Azerbaijan, since the early 1990s, where a significant
portion of the population gained ownership of their housing.


"However, decades later, many of these houses have become
outdated and unsafe, creating a need for their renovation and
replacement with new housing. In Azerbaijan, to address this
problem, a mechanism of so-called 'pilot projects' is applied.
Under this framework, old residential buildings are demolished, and
private developers build modern residential complexes in their
place. At the same time, the land for development is transferred to
the private sector, which allows compensating for costs through the
market sale of the new housing," the director said.


She also recalled that similar approaches have been applied in
other countries of the region, including Kazakhstan, where private
companies were involved in updating the old housing stock with an
obligation to ensure the resettlement of residents.


Separately, Sadiyeva emphasized the importance of improving the
regulatory and legal framework for the development of PPPs.







According to her, despite the existence of the law on
public-private partnership, its practical application remains
limited due to insufficiently developed mechanisms, including
issues of land transfer, risk allocation, and the return of
facilities to the state after project completion.


As an example, she cited a project for the construction of a
student dormitory under the PPP model (build-operate-transfer),
where regulatory gaps persisted, including issues of tax incentives
and facility transfer procedures after the completion of
operations: "Despite support from regulators, including the
Ministry of Economy, implementation faced insufficient coordination
between government agencies."


She noted that the key condition for the successful development
of PPP is not only the availability of legislation, but also an
effective dialogue between all government bodies and the private
sector, as well as the predictability and transparency of project
implementation rules.