One of the most common, but least written about, public policy instruments implemented by governments to encourage private finance has been the establishment of Public Infrastructure Funds (PIFs). At this point, readers may ask "what are PIFs?" One of the benefits of PIFs is that they are unique, adapted to meet specific country contexts, but conversely this can make them hard to accurately define. Put simply, they are a specific type of infrastructure financing fund that uses pu...

One of the most common, but least written about, public policy instruments implemented by governments to encourage private finance has been the establishment of Public Infrastructure Funds (PIFs). At this point, readers may ask "what are PIFs?" One of the benefits of PIFs is that they are unique, adapted to meet specific country contexts, but conversely this can make them hard to accurately define. Put simply, they are a specific type of infrastructure financing fund that uses pu...

To close its infrastructure gap, Latin America and the Caribbean needs more than investment in new structures. It needs to become more efficient at investing in infrastructure and regulating a new range of services that have the potential to disrupt the energy, transport, and water sectors. The technological revolution makes a future with quality services possible, but not inevitable. This book offers policy options for countries to improve the access, quality, and affordability of service...

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unforeseen major shock to the global economy and has affected infrastructure projects, and in particular PPPs, at all stages and in all sectors with implications for governments, providers of infrastructure assets and services, their financiers, and users. The impact of the pandemic has underscored the importance of strengthening key provisions in PPP legal frameworks to ensure that resilience to global disasters, like pandemics, and other kinds of externa...

This report provides an overview of infrastructure provision in three key economic sectors—road transport, electricity, and water and sanitation—as an initial step towards building a more extensive body of knowledge on the health of infrastructure provision worldwide. Geographically, this report focuses on two of the world’s fastest growing regions, East Asia and Pacific (EAP) and South Asia (SAR), which also account for approximately 35.8 percent of the world’s ext...

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) placed access to basic services at the center of international development in 2016-2030. Out of 17 goals, five address the access of poor people to basic services: to health in SDG3, to education in SDG4, and SDG5, to water and sanitation in SDG6, to energy in SDG7, and to urban services in SDG11. The mutually reinforcing relationship between electricity access, economic development, and poverty reduction is well established. The SDGs framed access to b...

The World Bank has been the main source of Vietnam’s IWT investment finance for more than a decade, but investment needs remain large and future sources of finance will need to be diversified. This report, prepared by a World Bank team, examines the current regulatory framework, institutional structure, and funding framework for IWT. The report suggests measures to strengthen infrastructure, regulatory, management, and the funding framework. Taken together, these measures would impro...

This report is a key analytical study of the project and is centered on addressing the knowledge gaps and providing technological recommendations on EE improvement and NRW reduction to generate positive impacts in the water sector in Vietnam. The main objectives of the report are to expand and disseminate knowledge on issues related to EE in the water and wastewater sectors and to inform the development of the national program for NRW reduction and EE improvement practices in the water sec...

The Model Legislative Provisions and the Legislative Guide on Public-Private Partnerships were prepared by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and adopted at its fifty-second session (Vienna, 8–19 July 2019).1 In addition to representatives of member States of the Commission, representatives of many other States and of several international organizations, both intergovernmental and non-governmental, participated actively in the preparatory work. The Mo...

The situation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Latin America and the Caribbean continues to be dire. This book uses an original database of SOE performance that shows that every year about one-third of such enterprises in the region report losses (up to 70 percent in some countries) and that they require between 0.3 and one percentage point of GDP in fiscal transfers to cover such losses. Countries in the region have adopted centralized agency monitoring of their SOEs, managed to reduc...

Led by WAPPP and APMG International, this webinar recording discusses the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on PPP projects and programs, how to deal with its repercussions, lessons learned and opportunities that might come out of it. 

The Public Investment Management Reference Guide aims to fill the gap between what should be done and the immediate demand for pragmatic guidance from countries on how to adapt the implied reforms. It conveys country experiences and good international practices as a basis for decisions on how to address a country-specific PIM reform agenda. The country references are drawn largely from previous diagnostics and technical assistance work of the World Bank.

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) can sometimes be perceived as a means for delivering infrastructure for free. A more nuanced view is that they are a mechanism to overcome fiscal constraints, a tool to realize public investments—especially large public infrastructure—when the government does not have the resources to implement these projects on budget. Some argue, and perhaps rightly so, that often governments enter PPP contracts without fully understanding their fiscal impli...

At the start of 2020, COVID-19 spread across the world at an unyielding pace. What began as global jitters has evolved into unprecedented disturbances in the economy, health systems and daily life. In Asia and the Pacific, the impacts of the pandemic have reverberated among its population of more than 4 billion and in its network of vital supply chains. In the face of such challenges, the region must respond quickly and collectively to save lives and build resilience against future pandemi...

Decades of high economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region have transformed its socioeconomic landscape – lifting a billion people out of extreme poverty in the past two decades and raising living standards for even greater numbers. However, such growth has been accompanied by growing inequality of income and opportunity and is beginning to breach planetary limits, thus endangering the well-being of future generations. Yet, the Asia-Pacific region is not on track to achieve any ...

Every financial system has faced or will face a crisis at some point. But even in the absence of a crisis, the extraordinary growth in credit over the last two decades has resulted in an increase of non-performing loans (NPLs), which are an unavoidable by-product of lending. This can put economies at risk. When not addressed, distressed assets can grow to reach critical thresholds that can slow down, or even prevent, economic recovery and increase unemployment, creating a vicious circle th...

The Private Participation in Infrastructure Database is a product of the World Bank Group’s Infrastructure, PPPs and Guarantees team. Its purpose is to identify and disseminate information on private participation in infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries. The database highlights the contractual arrangements used to attract private investment, the sources and destination of investment flows, and information on the main investors. The site currently provides infor...

The Private Participation in Infrastructure Database is a product of the World Bank Group’s Infrastructure, PPPs & Guarantees team. Its purpose is to identify and disseminate information on private participation in infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries. The database highlights the contractual arrangements used to attract private investment, the sources and destination of investment flows, and information on the main investors. The site currently offers infor...

The Private Participation in Infrastructure Database is a product of the World Bank Group’s Infrastructure, PPPs and Guarantees team. Its purpose is to identify and disseminate information on private participation in infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries. The database highlights the contractual arrangements used to attract private investment, the sources and destination of investment flows, and information on the main investors. The site currently provides infor...