Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 12
By Sara Israfilbayova – Trend:
Public-private partnership (PPP) is an attractive tool that can become a catalyst for economic development, Vladimir Zernov, Chairman of the Association of Non-Governmental Higher Educational Institutions of Russia, Rector of Russian New University, told Trend.
According to Zernov, investments need to rise by about 6 to 10 percent annually for the economic growth of a country; therefore, high hopes are pinned on business and entrepreneurs.
"Today, public-private partnership stays as the most urgent problem. Let us have a look at the Russian economy: of course, the economy has room for growth, but that is not going to happen without the strength of the non-state sector. At a time of global economic fluctuations and 2008’s global financial crisis, there comes an ever increasing awareness of the importance of the private sector. PPP is a more attractive tool for economic development, and businesses should have their say in shaping the country's economic plans," Zernov believes.
When talking about education as a service sector, he continued, then, of course, this is a strategically important part of economic development.
"In any reputable international ranking of universities, private universities are at the top: Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and others. The reason is simple: efficiency of the use of resources in the private sector is much higher than in the public sector. As such, PPPs are developing successfully all over the world and in all fields. For example, China’s achievements are largely due to the implementation of PPPs. They [the Chinese] realized that what is needed is a competitive environment, without which there can be no push for development and economic growth in general. China has actively introduced a competitive environment," said Zernov.
PPP is the force that should draw investments in education, science and the economy as a whole, serving as a catalyst for national development, he added.