Chapter 18
Infrastructure Markets and the Private
Sector
A modern infrastructure is not enough; we must have the
vision and flexibility to embrace change, to continuously
adapt, and to improve our personal performance and our
commitment to service. This will enable us to expand our
markets on the international stage.
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (My Vision. Challenges
in the Race for Excellence)
We need a national infrastructure bank to rebuild our
crumbling highways and water and sewer systems, thereby
putting additional people back to work.
Robert Reich
A national investment bank can invest to provide us with the
foundations of shared and ecologically sustainable growth:
renewing the U.K.'s energy, digital and transport
infrastructure which lags woefully behind other major
economies.
Jeremy Corbyn (UK Labour Party politician)
During the last two centuries, infrastructure development has been funded by local
and central governments. However, the traditional role of government as the sole
provider of railroads, bridges, tunnels, telecommunications networks, and power
generation and transmission facilities has been challenged. Private developers have
the possibility of accessing huge sums of money for investment and in many cases,
they have better management skills (or at least have fewer constraints) than government workers do, so they are beginning to challenge government’s traditional role.
And, faced with severe budgetary restraints, governments are starting to encourage
private investors to participate in a number of infrastructure projects. They are
enacting legislation to create new public/private partnerships in these fields, applying the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concept or one of its derivatives. This chapter
explains the concepts of the BOT concept, the potential advantages and the risks
involved. Whether the approach always works, also depends on the cultural history
of the nation and circumstances and conditions prevalent in the country.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
V. Proag, Infrastructure Planning and Management: An Integrated Approach,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48559-7_18
499
Infrastructure Markets and the Private
Sector
A modern infrastructure is not enough; we must have the
vision and flexibility to embrace change, to continuously
adapt, and to improve our personal performance and our
commitment to service. This will enable us to expand our
markets on the international stage.
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (My Vision. Challenges
in the Race for Excellence)
We need a national infrastructure bank to rebuild our
crumbling highways and water and sewer systems, thereby
putting additional people back to work.
Robert Reich
A national investment bank can invest to provide us with the
foundations of shared and ecologically sustainable growth:
renewing the U.K.'s energy, digital and transport
infrastructure which lags woefully behind other major
economies.
Jeremy Corbyn (UK Labour Party politician)
During the last two centuries, infrastructure development has been funded by local
and central governments. However, the traditional role of government as the sole
provider of railroads, bridges, tunnels, telecommunications networks, and power
generation and transmission facilities has been challenged. Private developers have
the possibility of accessing huge sums of money for investment and in many cases,
they have better management skills (or at least have fewer constraints) than government workers do, so they are beginning to challenge government’s traditional role.
And, faced with severe budgetary restraints, governments are starting to encourage
private investors to participate in a number of infrastructure projects. They are
enacting legislation to create new public/private partnerships in these fields, applying the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concept or one of its derivatives. This chapter
explains the concepts of the BOT concept, the potential advantages and the risks
involved. Whether the approach always works, also depends on the cultural history
of the nation and circumstances and conditions prevalent in the country.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
V. Proag, Infrastructure Planning and Management: An Integrated Approach,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48559-7_18
499