Infrastructure as long-term investment: understanding the public-private boundaries

Infrastructure is one of the most relevant long-term investments and it is crucial for the achievement of SDGs. Therefore, it represents a vehicle for public value generation. Infrastructure is, in the majority of cases, a public asset, where private players can play a fundamental role, both through public procurement and public-private partnerships (contractual or institutional). The involvement of private investors (industrial and financial) is crucial for mobilizing the capital needed to close the infrastructure gap but also to generate more innovation, sustainability, and quality across the infrastructure lifecycle. The chapter discusses these topics with a specific focus on the different delivery models to build and/or operate a greenfield/brownfield infrastructure and the different financial schemes to mobilize private capital in infrastructure. The chapter clarifies that despite the different "labels" and policies in place to mobilize private investors in infrastructure, there are some fundamental schemes which should be known by all the stakeholder to take more informed but also unbiased decisions.