State and business share ideas on preserving Russia’s cultural heritage

27 February 2007 — A conference “Applying Public Private Partnership Mechanisms in the Sphere of Culture” was held in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery on 26 February. The conference was jointly organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Ministry for Culture and Mass Communications and the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade. About 150 people attended from various cultural organisations, the business community and the media.

This is the first event of its kind to gather all parties interested in developing public private partnerships (PPPs) as a key mechanism for preserving heritage sites. Officials from various government ministries, consultants and cultural figures all spoke at the event.

Dmitry AmuntzDmitry Amuntz, Deputy Minister for Culture and Mass Communications, opened the conference with a speech on the current problems in restoring and preserving historical sites, on the lack of state financing for these projects and the prospects for the future. Kirill Androssov, Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade, told how PPP mechanisms can be applied in the cultural sphere and gave examples of how it works in other countries. The Head of the State Heritage Preservation Service, Boris Boyarskov, cautioned against putting management of cultural heritage in the hands of private organisations, but recognised that PPPs were essential and that the task is to ensure a proper level of control over the use of historical and cultural sites. Dmitry Zelenin, Governor of Tver Region, shared his experience of restoring and preserving cultural heritage by involving private capital.

Nitin NagpalIn the second session at the conference, lawyers and consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers explained the legal basis for PPPs, the opportunities for using project financing and for involving financial institutions in these projects. Nitin Nagpal, Director, PwC India, shared his experience in preserving India’s heritage sites, including by involving tourism organisations.

The event closed with a section on practical examples of the business and the state cooperating to restore and preserve cultural monuments. Uve Rodiger of the German Society for Technical Cooperation talked about heritage projects achieved under the Twinning Programme in Germany and about the Programme’s plans for projects in Russia. Mikhail Lermontov and Vladimir Tolstoy gave their opinions on attracting private investments for historical monuments that they manage and Vissarion Alyavdin, President of the National Fund for the Revival of the Russian Country Estate, talked about the prospects for creating a National Trust in Russia.

Mike Kubena, Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said:

“Russia's cultural heritage is a precious asset to the whole world. One can only welcome the fact that in Russia the government and the business community have joined forces in order to restore cultural heritage sites. Worldwide experience has proven that private capital can be a driving force capable of providing powerful support to public projects, particularly in the sphere of culture. Unlike philanthropic projects, the application of PPP mechanisms allows everyone involved to take monument restoration projects to a qualitatively new level. Today our goal consists of bringing together the interests of both the government and the business community, and making practical decisions to deal with the legal, financial and administrative issues of implementing these projects.”

Notes to editor:

1. For additional information, please contact PR Manager Vera Totskaya.
2. You can download the  presentations from the event (15 Mb).