Private Investment in Infrastructure: Dealing with uncertainty in contracts

The current debate about infrastructure revolves around how to mobilise more private investment to help build new or renew existing assets. Reducing uncertainty for investors is seen as one way to encourage more private infrastructure financing. However, uncertainty about risk affects every party in infrastructure procurement and management - especially suppliers, who deliver most of the value. Would Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), and infrastructure contracts in general, perform better if the public sector creates more information about risk - and makes this information available to bidders? Are there better approaches than PPPs to deal with uncertainty over the long run? The conference presented the findings of a new report, “Private Investment in Transport Infrastructure: Dealing with Uncertainty in Contracts”, and discussed these with academics, practitioners and policy makers from around the world. The report is the main output of an ITF Working Group of more than 20 experts from different disciplines related to infrastructure investment, procurement, civil engineering, and economic regulation. 

See photos from the conference

Related papers:

• What is Private Investment in Transport Infrastructure and Why is it Difficult?
  
• The Role of Private Investment in Transport Infrastructure 
  
• Quantifying Private and Foreign Investment in Transport Infrastructure
  
• Risk Allocation in Public-Private Partnerships and the Regulatory Asset Base Model
  
• Uncertainty in Long-term Service Contracts: Franchising Rail Transport Operations
  
• Competition for Infrastructure Projects: Traditional Procurement and PPPs in Europe
  
• Collaborative Infrastructure Procurement in Sweden and the Netherlands
  
• Risk Allocation in Mega-Projects in Denmark
  
• Risk Pricing in Infrastructure Delivery: Making Procurement Less Costly
• The Danish State Guarantee Model for Infrastructure Investment
  
• Public-Private Partnerships in Transport: Unbundling Prices from User Charges 
  
• Dealing with the Obsolescence of Transport Infrastructure in Public-Private Partnerships
  
• A Corporatised Delivery Model for the Australian Road Network
  
• Infrastructure Funding: Does it Matter Where the Money Comes From? 
  
• Capex Bias and Adverse Incentives in Incentive Regulation: Issues and Solutions
  
• The Thames Tideway Tunnel: A Hybrid Approach to Infrastructure Delivery
• Mobilising Private Investment in Infrastructure: Investment De-Risking and Uncertainty

Papers written in preparation for the Working Group:

• The Regulatory Asset Base and Project Finance Models
• Risk pricing inefficiency in public–private partnerships