Worldwide focus for NZ consultants

By ELLEN READ

Water supply in Azerbaijan and electricity in the Philippines are the first in what a new consultancy company hopes will be a long line of international infrastructure projects.

From a Wellington base, former Institute of Economic Research director Alex Sundakov has bought into a Paris-based consultancy firm Castalia and already won two World Bank projects.

Sundakov and business partner David Ehrhardt convinced the founder of Castalia, a Paris-based consulting firm, to let them establish the English-speaking office for the company in New Zealand and work globally.

"Almost everywhere you go from here the rest of the world is on the way," Sundakov said of the hectic travelling schedule which is to be his life as the business is set up and gains global contracts.

The New Zealand office has five staff - a number Sundakov plans to treble in a year - and brings in specialist consultants on various projects.

Russian-born Sundakov left the institute in April after heading the economic research organisation for six years.

The World Bank projects will run for six to nine months and are worth around $1 million each.

The first project is to set up a regulatory regime for private investment in rural electrification in the Philippines. The second involves preparing for private sector participation in the supply of water to the city of Baku in Azerbaijan.

Castalia was one of the pioneers of public-private partnerships in many countries, working for both Governments and private organisations.

Sundakov believes New Zealand can learn valuable lessons from its experience in this field.

"In particular, it is important to ensure that public private partnerships do not become vehicles for passing commercial risks to taxpayers," he warned.

"The French have a saying that many deals of this kind can lead to the privatisation of profits and the socialisation of losses. This is clearly an urgent issue for New Zealand."

Castalia's first New Zealand contract involves working in the electricity sector looking at reserve generation issues.

Castalia