Abstract: In the present demanding economic conditions, cooperation or partnership among all the involved economic entities is a way how to achieve economic growth and strengthen competitiveness of both the individual entrepreneurial entities and the entire economies. These partnerships lead to creation, transformation and transfer of valuable knowledge and resources. One of the relevant forms of partnerships in the given context is the partnership between the public and private sectors. Projects implemented within this framework, so-called public private partnership (PPP) projects, represent projects of building an extensive infrastructure implemented in the public interest using the financial resources of the private sector, where not only the financial resources of private enterprises, but also their know-how, organizational and innovative potentials are used.
The fact is that PPP projects are used in the Czech Republic to a limited extent although they are connected with a number of positive microeconomic, macroeconomic and extra-economic effects. Their broader application is also conditioned by widening of the range of their funding resources. A possible alternative can be seen in the mezzanine capital as a hybrid form of funding, having both the features of the own capital and the features of debts.
The lecture deals with the outcomes of the research carried out in the Czech Republic in 2011 focussing on two problem areas. The first research, dedicated to the barriers in PPP project implementation, aimed to identify the problems connected with application of PPP projects in the Czech Republic and to propose their possible solutions, and it was carried out in the form of a survey among the members of the Association for Public Private Partnership Project Support in the Czech Republic. The second research, dedicated to the alternative possibilities of PPP project funding, aimed to define and assess the possible PPP project funding sources, and to judge the possibilities of utilization of the mezzanine capital for their financing; this research was carried out in the form of structured interviews with representatives of financial institutions.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Libena Tetrevova graduated from the University of Economics in Prague, the Czech Republic, in 1996, where she majored in accounting and corporate financial management at the Faculty of Finance and Accounting. In 1996-1999, she completed a doctor course in corporate management and economy at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of University Pardubice, the Czech Republic. In 2002 and 2003, she attended a course in the protection of competition at the University of Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy. She got an associate professor degree in corporate economy and management at the Faculty of Economics, Technical University in Liberec, the Czech Republic (2004). In 1999-2009 she was a lecturer, then an associate professor and a vice-dean for internal matters and development (2005-2007) at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University Pardubice. In 2005-2007, she also worked as an associate professor at the Faculty of Public Administration, Pavel Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia. Since 2009, she has been an associate professor in the Department of Economy and Management of Chemical and Food Industry at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of University Pardubice. She works as a postgraduate student instructor at University Pardubice and Technical University in Brno, in the committees of doctor courses at University Pardubice and the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. Within her pedagogical, scientific and publishing activities, she is involved in interaction between the private and public sectors, focussing on its financial aspects. She is the author or a co-author of more than 100 papers published in professional journals and conference proceedings, and also of 9 monographs.