Chile, Colombia, and Peru lead sustainable public-private partnerships

"The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have a strong performance in the area of regulations, and PPPs are almost universally accepted as a tool for contracting, generalized adoption of national infrastructure plans, and improvements in sustainability indicators," according to a report released on Thursday at the PPP Americas Forum in the Dominican Republic.

The 2019 index, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), placed Chile, Colombia, and Peru, which top the list after Jamaica and Guatemala.

Next are El Salvador, Brazil, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Honduras.

The report —developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit every two years, and based on five categories: regulation, institutions, maturity, investment climate and financing— highlighted regional "advances" in the last decade.

Although regulation is the area where the highest scores were recorded, financing is the one with the lowest, which "shows that institutions to finance infrastructure are incipient in Latin America and the Caribbean."

The report also found that "transparency and accountability during the life cycle of PPPs are essential to ensure that they are well managed and to document successes in order to generate public support for future initiatives."

Ancor Suárez, IDB specialist in PPPs, said that "in order to achieve the greatest social gains derived from PPPs in the region and provide more and better quality services to the inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean, it is essential to know the conditions in which these can be implemented."

The region invests around 3.5% of its GDP, although figures from the multilateral bank estimate that in order to reach the appropriate level of development it should invest between 5% and 6%, which is a gap equivalent to US$1.5 billion over the next few years.

Given the huge volume of financing required, there is not "sufficient" regional funds, so international investors have to be resorted to, and PPPs are instruments that can yield beneficial results for both parties, said the official.

The PPP Americas Forum, which finished on Thursday, brought together more than 500 representatives from the public sector and private investors in the region.

(END) EFE/RMB