EN 
EL By Alexandros Zacharopoulos*
The consultation on the draft model law (or innovators) of infrastructure proposals, from the Minister of Transport-Infrastructure Costas Karamanlis. This is a very positive government initiative that lays the groundwork for dynamic developments in developmental modern projects that attract sound investment and mature plans for increased efficiency for the general and regional economy.
The State aims to adopt the large innovative mature projects that will be proposed by the experienced construction groups in the infrastructure field across the Territory with their necessary partnerships where needed.
Because the draft law concerns projects of more than 200 million euros and sets conditions for the submission of a very high level and budget by entities that can implement such very large projects, the question arises whether the ministry should immediately move into the new era but where innovation is not measured by origin and cost, but how valuable it is and how optimally or excellently it solves the problem it faces.
Yes, obviously leveraging the big projects as a priority, but not just them. Those who deal with infrastructure and innovation professionally, know how to recognize a good idea. Especially some of the notable officials of the general infrastructure secretariat, MODAE, the Ministry of Development, TAIPED, etc. There are good innovative ideas that are clearly recognized, in a few words (elevator speech), without the studies being so mature or not having to involve such large budgets.
For the original innovative ideas now, with this new bill on innovative infrastructures, in this phase, a process of measuring the usefulness of each innovative idea per euro invested should be introduced.
The ministry must immediately be able to evaluate, set priorities and publicize per thematic problem it solves and per region, so that innovation is conceived among the stakeholders, disputes are resolved and relevant opinions and views are heard through open consultation in the public sphere. Therefore, where the political will and the stakeholders converge, the projects should be promoted towards their implementation.
Infrastructural innovation competitions could also be held by thematic category or by Region, with prizes for some important remunerative benefits (bonuses of state participation, etc.) for the proponents and manufacturers who embrace it with the best offers for society.
From the ideas it receives, the excellent cases, the ministry could promote them in an electronic tender for their tender in terms of PPP or another economic and technical approach. The innovation community is active everywhere, there is a wealth of international relevant experience on infrastructure innovation (eg I3, SDG9), and the tangible results will be important for the economy.
As Thatcher used to say, "economists travel with infrastructure"! No more time should be wasted on the good ideas of the country's engineers. If G.G. of Infrastructure cannot undertake it or it appears that in practice there is no proper implementation due to a lack of a relevant innovative culture in our old heavy ministries such as infrastructure, it can assign it to TEE to run the implementation of the register of innovative infrastructure and its related actions, as in so many other cases.
My proposal is to create by Region a tabulation of innovations by range of indicative expected budget (without the need to do all the pre-studies in order to submit a prototype or innovative idea).
The auxiliary officers of the committee proposed in the draft law and the associate assessors of the Ministry of Transport-Infrastructure. It may be beneficial to involve evaluators and auditors from the newly established registers of the Ministry of Development-Investment to evaluate submitted ideas quickly, manage such proposals and score them on an initial electronic standard evaluation form based on the rationale indicated in the pre-feasibility studies and cost-benefit (CAP).
I propose to introduce a provision that makes possible another parallel procedure for the submission of new infrastructure projects by any citizen who wants it, by tabulating the required minimum information form with specific metrics (KPIs) that the services need for the preliminary cost-benefit studies, so that there is an econometric evaluation of the ideas that can be shared on the relevant website of the Ministry of Transport-Infrastructure, and to issue a rating of ALL the ideas by the committee.
Also to be implemented by the YME in collaboration with the local Region, an annual open one-day presentation/session of the new innovative proposals that have been submitted per Region, so that there is osmosis and maturation and transfer of the ideas to wider local audiences which will be more relevant as central stakeholders of infrastructure projects are professional environmental and other collective bodies. Let's bring the good future immediately with the innovative infrastructures engineered by the Greek engineer.
*Alexandros Zacharopoulos is a Graduate Civil Engineer & Geologist MBA/MPA/MEng, Chief Engineer of Public Works and Research Fellow at the Administrative Science Laboratory of the Athens University of Economics.
This article was first published in the online newspaper"business4sdgs.gr“
