Innovation and Adaptation The Future of PPPs within a New Financial Paradigm

Public Private Partnerships have made a substantive contribution to the upgrade in infrastructure quality around the world enhancing resident quality of life and supporting economic development. The rollout of the PPP model has not met with universal approval however; indeed in some countries there has been strong resistance to PPPs with misgivings centered on the level of private sector profiteering as well as the long-term obligations placed on the tax-payer. The scale of the infrastructural investment challenge will nonetheless necessitate greater collaboration between the public and private sectors going forward if the infrastructural investment gap is to be addressed. As economies around the world begin the process of transition between recession and recovery it is imperative that key stakeholder groupings work together to formulate long-term infrastructural objectives, create efficient and transparent implementation and operational strategies as well as conceptualising and developing innovative investment models. This paper examines the case for and against the continued expansion of PPPs as a conduit for private sector investment in essential infrastructural provision. The paper reflects the views and opinions of key stakeholder groupings across five PPP markets namely, Australia, Canada, India the US and the UK. The rationale was to reflect the experiences and challenges across jurisdictions at different stages in the PPP maturity cycle. To facilitate comparability, statistics used in the quantitative evaluation are drawn from the Infrastructure Journal (IJ) online database.