PANAMA CITY, Panama, CMC -The eleventh public-private partnership (PPP) in Latin America and the Caribbean has announced continued support for Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to implement a PPP port project in Port of Spain.
A statement issued following the three-day event here did not specify the particular port project but added, “At PPP Americas 2023, the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) and the Global Infrastructure Facility entered into a consulting contract for structuring the project, and the firm will begin work immediately”.
Delegates attending the conference here were told that the region has led the way in attracting private investments in infrastructure, with close to 25 percent more investment in this area than in East Asian countries over the last three decades.
The PPP Americas is regarded as the most important forum on public-private partnerships in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the three-day event here had been organized by the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the government of Panama.
The organizers said that over the last three days, leaders and experts from the public and private sectors discussed how to bolster public-private partnerships and expand their role in high-priority sectors, like water and sanitation, hospitals, schools, and renewable energy, to achieve more significant social impact and contribute to climate action.
According to a statement issued following the deliberations, 20 countries met the regulatory and institutional conditions required for PPPs to flourish. However, there is still much to do to strengthen the processes of preparing and implementing PPP projects.
The statement said that the event highlighted that to reduce the infrastructure deficit and meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the region must invest an additional 3.12 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), or approximately US$210 billion annually.
“But the current complex macroeconomic situation in the region means that the public sector has to invest more efficiently, and countries need to attract private-sector resources, innovation, and knowledge sustainably,” the statement noted.
The IDB and the Brazilian organization Semeia launched the publication: PPP’s in Parks in Latin America and the Caribbean: Findings and a practical guide for Partnerships, which compiles lessons from structuring projects in Brazil for other governments and regional public agents to draw on.
Within the framework of the event, IDB Invest, Scotiabank, and ENSA Grupo EPM signed financing to increase access to electricity in rural communities in the northeast of Panama.
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