Development of public-private partnership in Belarus

In the Republic of Belarus, the authorities chose public-private partnership as an alternative to privatization which allows to keep socially important objects in the state property. The results of the survey of entrepreneurs and civil servants show the readiness of the authorities and business for equal partnership under the proclaimed socially oriented market economy. On the example of the metropolitan region, the authors analyzed the institutional-adaptation period in the development of public-private partnership in Belarus. The sociological approach to the study of public-private partnership aims at considering the relationship ‘power-business-society’ as a system of interdependent actions of civil servants, entrepreneurs and population. The analysis of behavioral strategies of participants of this interaction was conducted through their social expectations with the methods of expert surveys of entrepreneurs and civil servants and an opinion poll of the population of Minsk. The authors made the following conclusions: society is only an observer due to the poor knowledge of public-private partnership; the behavioral strategies of entrepreneurs are determined by regulatory-legal factors, of civil servants - by system-legal factors; the key barrier for the public-private partnership projects is the low assessment of one’s qualifications by civil servants and entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs consider civil servants as competitors in conflict situations and define their style of behavior as ‘pressing’; the state prefers contracts as the main form of interaction with business, which emphasizes the independence of partners. Therefore, the state and entrepreneurs take risks and responsibilities in the public-private partnership projects in the agreed shares, and the authorities fully control such projects.