How to catalyze private money into infrastructure investments? A roadmap for governments and private-sector stakeholders

Anna Kurguzova & Ussal Sahbaz

08/12/2015

Countries across the globe experience a large and growing gap between infrastructure needs and the resources that governments have historically invested in meeting those needs. There is a big pool of literature on how to close the infrastructure gap. Multilateral institutions, international organizations, as well as private-sector companies, have all contributed to this pool.

Under the G20 Turkey presidency, the Business-20 Infrastructure & Investment taskforce prepared a comprehensive set of actionable proposals for governments and businesses on how to close the infrastructure gap by increasing private-sector investment. The Think-20 contributed extensively with policy options for the G20 Infrastructure and Investment agenda in 2015 as well. This paper draws from the Business-20 and Think-20 thorough research, their meetings and workshops, and lays out a roadmap with implementable actions for governments and private-sector stakeholders on how to unlock funds of private-sector investors to infrastructure. The paper does not analyze infrastructure market and government failures which are discussed thoroughly in the B20 Infrastructure & Investment taskforce policy paper.

The paper brings together policy proposals lined up according to a typical infrastructure project cycle that includes the following stages: project preparation and evaluation; financing; procurement and approvals; operations and asset management. Closing the growing infrastructure gap requires initiatives that target various elements of the infrastructure investment ecosystem. Project cycle framework will allow stakeholders to structure and deliver engagements more efficiently, identifying and targeting those areas and practices where intervention is best justified.

How to catalyze private money into infrastructure investments? A roadmap for governments and private-sector stakeholders