/ Knowledge Management / Events / Second Meeting of the Infrastructure Financing and Public-Private Partnership Network of Asia and the Pacific / Knowledge Management / Events / Second Meeting of the Infrastructure Financing and Public-Private Partnership Network of Asia and the Pacific The challenges of infrastructure financing in Asia and the Pacific are complex. This is particularly true for a region covering members States with vastly different geographic and economic levels of development, including small islands developing states (SIDS), landlocked developing countries (LLDcs), and least developed countries (LDCs). In addition to the maintenance of new and existing infrastructure, such variations have implications on the need for infrastructure development to meet new demand arising from higher income, population, and urbanization.
This challenge is reflected in the substantial financing gap between investment needs to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to infrastructure and current investment in infrastructure, which, for example, is twice as much in SIDS in the Pacific than the average for developing countries in the region. At the same time, private sector participation in infrastructure investment in emerging markets dropped by 37 percent between 2015 and 2016 globally.
To this end, ESCAP has taken the initiative to serve member States’ needs and successfully organized the first meeting of the Infrastructure Financing and PPP Network of Asia and the Pacific with support from the China Public-Private Partnerships Center in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China, on September 12-13, 2018. The event gathered the heads of PPP units, infrastructure financing specialists and capital market experts from 23 countries in the region to enhance knowledge and capacity of PPP units on the effective use of PPP mechanisms as well as other infrastructure financing strategies to support the pursuit of sustainable infrastructure development.
Event Materials
This session provides the contextual framework for PPPs by focusing on countries’ respective infrastructure financing initiatives including policies, pipeline development, institutional reforms, and the role of the private sector. It also offers a macro level overview of the investment climate for infrastructure in the region, highlighting selected countries’ obstacles, rules, and regulations in order to provide a backdrop for subsequent discussions on infrastructure financing.
The practice of infrastructure planning in many countries is characterized by fragmentation, often relying on bottom-up, project-by-project assessments of costs and benefits to develop new infrastructure projects. This discussion, thus, advocates the need for the public sector to better coordinate and streamline the planning and preparation of infrastructure projects, using a holistic, top-down approach with the aim of developing a strategic framework by which policymakers can better identify, formulate and go about establishing a portfolio of sustainable infrastructure projects.
This session allows countries to showcase their demonstration projects for possible private sector participation to foster learning and exchange on private sector infrastructure financing options. Given the differences in legal and regulatory framework among countries in the region and its implications on the nature and scope of projects and financing structure, this session aims to facilitate commonalities and highlight key elements of pipeline and pilot demonstration projects in Asia and the Pacific.
This session continues from the previous session and features more demonstration projects from other countries. It also aims at addressing countries’ lack of PPP experience by allowing countries to gain a better understanding of PPP concepts and knowledge of PPP project preparation to improve the viability of PPP project pipelines.
A major objective of this second meeting is to advance the dialogue from the inception meeting and further engage the recommendations of network members on the operationalization of this network and how it could further facilitate the exchange of good practices and enhance the knowledge and capacity of PPP units in the region on the effective use of PPP mechanism.
Building on the previous discussion on the role of the network, this session serves to outline the establishment of the web portal and project pipeline while developing a concept of a web-based knowledge sharing resource which would consolidate information on PPP institutions, commercially viable project preparation techniques, viable project pipelines, and market environment in the region.
This session presents a critical overview and exploration of selected innovative financing schemes to fund the region’s expanding infrastructure needs. These include the development of capital markets, green bonds, blended finance, overseas development assistance, and climate finance. It will also discuss other important developments in infrastructure financing options and modalities.
This session emphasizes the need for greater private sector involvement to finance large infrastructure investment gaps in the region. Apart from regulatory and institutional reforms needed to attract private investors, consideration is given to the important factors in mobilizing private sector financing. This panel aims to discuss private sector’s activities and views on financing public infrastructure with an emphasis on their investment horizon and key investment considerations.
