Washington, December 15, 2008—
A conference of experts will gather at the World Bank December 15-18 to identify ways to restore debt and equity market financing for roads, power generation and distribution and other infrastructure amid the global financial crisis.
The meeting, to be attended by about 150 senior government officials and experts involved in public-private partnerships in infrastructure, comes as many countries, both developed and developing, undertake massive investments in infrastructure as part of major stimulus packages to respond to the economic crisis.
“Infrastructure offers significant investment opportunities for long-term investors, even in a time of global crisis,”
said
Ngozi N. Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank.
“It is important, both for economic recovery and long-term development, that private capital markets be tapped to make often urgently-needed infrastructure investments. International financial institutions alone cannot meet the needs of the developing world, so it’s important to work together for maximum impact.”
The four-day event, entitled
Public Private Partnerships in Infrastructure (PPPI) Days,
is co-hosted by the World Bank Institute and the Asian Development Bank Institute, and held in Washington. Participants include specialists from private financial, legal, and consulting firms, and other businesses, from 65 countries, as well as officials from the World Bank Group, other multilateral organizations and donor countries.
Panel discussions will explore how public and private sectors can share the financing, risks and benefits of infrastructure projects in sectors such as energy, transport, water, and sanitation, in which private sector companies often deliver services, as well as in education and health, where the public sector is more often predominant.
As World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick announced last month, IFC, the member of the World Bank Group focusing on private sector investment, is establishing an Infrastructure Crisis Facility which will provide roll-over financing and help capitalize viable, privately-funded or public private partnership infrastructure projects in emerging markets that are facing distress because of the global financial crisis.
For almost two decades, governments in both industrial and developing economies have used public-private partnerships to accelerate investment in infrastructure and improve service delivery. To design and execute such program, governments have typically established Public-Private Partnership (PPP) units to acquire expertise on procurement, negotiations, and monitoring of infrastructure works and service. The quality of this expertise is a critical factor in determining whether or not developing-country governments can create and sustain effective public-private partnerships that share the risks of large investments and deliver gains to both sides.
To help countries build this expertise, the World Bank Institute, in collaboration with other multilateral agencies, is using PPPI Days to launch a new learning program aimed at officials in developing-country governments.
“This global initiative in PPP capacity building will be delivered by WBI and other multilateral organizations and partners next year
,”
said
Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, World Bank Institute.
The PPPI Days event seeks to foster a deeper understanding of how PPP projects most affected by the financial crisis can continue to access long-term financing. Discussions will draw extensively on lessons from mature as well as emerging markets in attracting private financing and expertise into PPP projects, and explore implications of current difficulties in credit and capital markets for the future of PPP. Participants will also address new challenges in infrastructure funding through infrastructure bonds, infrastructure funds, and structured finance, as well as how these approaches might shape the future of PPP projects in emerging markets.
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