Private Sector Participation and Investment in Physical Infrastructure for CAREC

Background

Access, quality and price of infrastructure are important drivers of regional competitiveness, economic growth and poverty reduction. Governments in the Asia-Pacific region increasingly recognize that lack of adequate infrastructure is limiting gains in productivity, raise the cost of production and reduce profitability, as well as constrain growth and poverty reduction efforts. While investment in infrastructure has risen, the region will still need substantial infrastructure investment over the next decade.

Governments are, however, facing growing fiscal constraints and have been encouraging greater private sector participation (and investment) in order to better meet the infrastructure challenges they face. In accordance with ADBI’s chosen special focus — Infrastructure for Regional Cooperation, this seminar explores the main challenges to accelerating PPP in infrastructure sectors across the region to enable improved and more affordable access to infrastructure services.