Benchmarking public private partnership environments: East Asian comparisons

The Public Private Partnerships (PPP) markets in Australia and the UK are considered to be the most sophisticated in the World and used as a model for benchmarking against other countries. In addition the global financial crisis also meant many PPP financiers became risk averse to certain projects and in particular countries. The environment for major infrastructure projects, particularly in ‘riskier’ countries, has become more difficult. Research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Asian Development Bank evaluated PPP policy and programs in a number of countries in the Asia Pacific. The study benchmarks the UK and Australian PPP environments with eleven developing or emerging countries including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Gujarat state in India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam. The comparison was based on indicators developed to provide a sound evaluation of these countries. The indicators include; the legal and regulatory framework, institutional framework, operational maturity, investment climate, financial facilities plus a sub-national adjustment factor. The research methodology and the benchmarking results for each country are summarised.