OREANDA-NEWS. September 24, 2009. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Kazakhstan Public-Private Partnership Center today signed an agreement to cooperate on increasing private sector investments in the country’s infrastructure.

The memorandum of understanding reflects the government’s commitment to enhance partnerships with the private sector, and it aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of the public administration for promoting public-private partnerships.

“With the financial crisis, governments increasingly are turning to the private sector to improve the quality of public services by financing, developing, and managing transportation, energy, telecommunications, water, sanitation, and other projects,” said Laurence Carter, Director of IFC Infrastructure Advisory Services.

“This signing marks the beginning of an enhanced level of cooperation between IFC and the PPP Center,” said Bolat Smagulov, Chairman of the Public-Private Partnership Center. “We will benefit from IFC’s vast experience in providing transaction advice on sustainable infrastructure projects.”

Established in 1989, IFC Advisory Services in Infrastructure has worked on more than 250 projects 80 countries. IFC is the only multilateral institution to offer direct advisory services to governments on implementing transactions with private-sector participation.