Round-up of Session

UNIS/L/88
1 October 2001

UN COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW
WORKING GROUP CONCLUDES FIRST SESSION IN VIENNA

Discusses Draft Core Model Legislative Provisions in the Field of
Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects

VIENNA, 1 October (UN Information Service) – According to the mandate of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Working Group identified the specific issues on which model legislative provisions – possibly to become an addendum to the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects, adopted in 2000 – could be formulated and focussed on a specific phase of the privately financed infrastructure projects, namely the selection of the concessionaire.

At its thirty-fourth session (Vienna, 25 June-13 July, 2001), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law entrusted a working group with the task of drafting core model legislative provisions in the field of privately financed infrastructure projects, based upon the legislative recommendations contained in the Legislative Guide. The Commission found that such model legislative provisions would provide useful guidance to countries in the process of reforming legislation in the field of privately financed infrastructure projects, especially developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

Such desirability had also been stressed in the Colloquium organized by the Secretariat in cooperation with the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), a multi-donor technical assistance facility aimed at helping developing countries improve the quality of their infrastructure through private sector involvement. The Colloquium was held in Vienna in July 2001 under the title "Privately Financed Infrastructure: Legal Framework and Technical Assistance".

The Secretariat was requested to prepare draft model legislative provisions for review and discussion at the next session of the Working Group on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects, which finished its work in Vienna on Friday and might hold its next session in Vienna from 9 to 13 September 2002.

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