Public-Private Partnership Center

Investments in infrastructure are rapidly growing in the APEC region. While infrastructure’s sustainability is important for economic growth, developing economies with financial difficulties tend to pay attention to initial costs at procurement. As a result, they often end up introducing infrastructure with higher lifecycle cost, short-term durability and/or high environmental burdens.

Against this backdrop, in the “Multiyear Plans on Infrastructure Development and Investment,” the APEC Economic Leaders agreed in Bali in 2013 on the importance of comprehensive and holistic considerations, including the following principles;
(i) long-lasting asset value and stability of long term cash flow of infrastructure projects, and
(ii) in the bidding process of infrastructure projects, not only the purchase price but also key elements such as lifecycle costs including performance and durability, environmental friendliness, safety and maintainability should be considered.

Further details of these principles should be shared widely among government officials and other stakeholders to implement them in APEC economies. In this regard, Japan, as a member of APEC economies, will hold a capacity building seminar on quality of infrastructures, including case studies and information sharing.