Infrastructure Commons^™

Understanding The Landscape Of Overruns In Transport Infrastructure Projects, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Ian Simpson, Michael Regan, Oluwole Olatunji

Michael Regan

Cost and schedule overruns are endemic features of transport infrastructure projects. Despite the considerable amount of research within the field of transport and planning in the past thirty years, limited progress has been made to improving the performance of projects. We contend that this will continue to be an issue as long as research efforts focus on the ‘outside view’ with emphasis being placed upon strategic misrepresentation and optimism bias. Understanding ‘why’ and ‘how’ projects overrun, particularly from both ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ perspectives, is pivotal to reducing their impact and occurrence. Thus, in conjunction with the transport and planning literature, …

Review Of Performance Measurement: Implications For Public–Private Partnerships, Junxiao Liu, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Michael Regan, Ekambaram Palaneeswaran

Michael Regan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the normative literature in regard to public-private partnerships (PPPs) and their evaluations, and attempts to investigate whether the Performance Prism is a feasible framework for effective PPP performance measurement. Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth and critical literature review is conducted in this study. Discussion concentrates on PPP features, performance measurement in PPPs, performance measurement in construction, and characteristics of the Performance Prism. Findings – The Performance Prism exhibits a strong ability to capture the distinct features of PPP infrastructure projects and can be considered as a framework suitable for effective and …

Government Institutions And Infrastructure Skills Development, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

The capacity of state institutions is central to the efficient delivery and management of infrastructure. The paper examines two models for improving the skills of managers in central and line agencies of government for infrastructure procurement and management in emerging economies. The first examines the role of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit, a specialist agency equipped with the technical capabilities, transactional experience and budget to provide training and assistance to line agencies for the effective delivery of infrastructure projects. Integrated into this model, and used by several nations, is the use of trained relationship managers to manage service contracts …

Public-Private Partnerships: A Review Of Theory And Practice Of Performance, Junxiao Liu, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Michael Regan, Monty Sutrisna

Michael Regan

Purpose – This paper reviews the normative literature of performance measurement within the context of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of current ex post evaluations of PPPs and identify a feasible direction to comprehensively and effectively measure the performance of PPP infrastructure projects.

Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth literature review is conducted in this paper. The focus of the review is associated with the general performance measurement and performance measurements of PPPs.

Findings – This paper identifies that conventional ex post evaluation is not robust enough to measure the performance of PPP projects. …

Assessing Risk In Infrastructure Public Private Partnerships, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

Public private partnerships are a method for the delivery of social and economic infrastructure services in over 80 countries worldwide. PPPs are a contractual arrangement between public and private entities through which the skills, assets and/or financial resources of both sectors are allocated in such a manner that provides optimal service delivery and good value to society. Central to the operation of public private partnerships is the systematic evaluation of the procurement options available to government, an output specification to encourage private design, risk transfer, construction and operational innovation, the detailed analysis of projects over their operational life-cycle, a rigorous …

Ex-Ante Evaluation Of Public-Private Partnerships: Macroeconomic Analysis, Junxiao Liu, Peter Love, Brad Carey, Jim Smith, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are currently a popular approach for governments to procure social and economic infrastructure. The macroeconomic environment plays a critical role and influences the factors that can lead to the successful delivery of a PPP project. Despite the importance of the macroeconomic environment, limited attention has been paid to ex-ante (that is, before the event, or forecast) evaluation. A review of the normative literature was undertaken, aiming to derive key performance indicators (KPIs) of PPP success. The KPIs were validated by using a vector error correction model. It is suggested that the developed KPIs can be used to …

Value For Money In International Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Policies: Survey Of African States, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

The international evidence suggests that public private partnership (PPP) procurement methods using value for money evaluation criteria are delivering better infrastructure services at lower cost than traditional procurement methods. Central to the operation of public private partnerships is the systematic evaluation of the procurement options available to government, as well as an output specification to encourage private design, risk transfer, construction and operational innovation, the detailed analysis of projects over their operational life cycle, a rigorous and competitive bid process, and the selection of proposals that deliver value for money. Value for money is a measure that takes into account …

Life Cycle Critical Success Factors For Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Projects, Junxiao Liu, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Michael Regan, Peter Davis

Michael Regan

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been widely used in the procurement of economic and social infrastructure projects. Since the operation of more and more PPP projects, there have been a number of explorations on the factors that contribute to their success. Project success is often expressed by the quality of the product and project management success. Bearing in mind these perspectives, the critical success factors (CSFs) of PPP infrastructure projects under the auspices of the project management success perspective are identified and examined. A life-cycle CSF framework with embedded “learning mechanisms” is developed. The proposed framework will enable public and private …

Conceptual Framework For The Performance Measurement Of Public-Private Partnerships, Junxiao Liu, Peter Love, Peter Davis, Jim Smith, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been used widely to deliver economic and social infrastructure projects. There has been widespread debate about the factors that contribute to their success and failure. Critical to their successful implementation is effective performance measurement of the projects. With this in mind, a comprehensive review of the normative literature in association with PPPs (e.g., critical success factors, roles of public sector, concessionaire selection, risk management, cost and time issues, and finance) is undertaken and a conceptual framework for dynamic life-cycle is proposed. The paper provides both public sector and private entities with an insight into effective and …

Project Finance: Transactional Evidence From Australia (Revised Version 2013), Michael Regan

Michael Regan

The international project finance market is experiencing a period of significant change. The new Basel III capital adequacy rules will make it harder for banks to provide long-term project finance, and alternative sources of finance such as the shadow banking sector, fund managers, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors will take time to bridge the financing gap. In the meantime, it is difficult to source project finance for tenors beyond seven years, risk premiums are higher, and finance is difficult to source. Recent innovations in the form of the European Investment Bank’s Project Bond Initiative, and the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund …

Infrastructure Financing Modalities In The Asia Pacific: Strengths And Weaknesses, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Scope of the Presentation: 1. A review of 10 methods presently used to finance infrastructure investment in the Asia Pacific 2. Identify respective strengths and weaknesses 3. Describe trends in recent investment performance and specifically, the continued development of the PPP procurement option 4. List of reference sources used in this presentation.

Value For Money In Project Procurement, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Extract: Public private partnerships are a method for the delivery of social and economic infrastructure services in over 80 countries worldwide. PPPs are a contractual arrangement between public and private entities through which the skills, assets and/or financial resources of both sectors are allocated in such a manner that provides optimal service delivery and good value to society. The international evidence suggests that public private partnership procurement methods using value for money evaluation criteria are delivering better infrastructure services at lower cost than traditional procurement methods.

Understanding Risk And Uncertainty: A Brief History, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Extract: Risk is an explanation for human activity that doesn’t go to plan, i.e. the undertaking achieves an outcome at variance to expectation. The risks that we encounter today are similar in form and substance to those that faced our ancestors over the past 5,500 years. What has changed over that time is the greater complexity of systems today, which amplify the likelihood, and the magnitude of unexpected outcomes in all forms of human activity. For example, we load our economic and social infrastructure, our services, our supply chains and our commercial networks to breaking point. London’s public infrastructure, including …

Asean Public Private Partnership Guidelines, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

The ASEAN PPP Guidelines are designed for ASEAN nations and provide a common set of policy principles for member countries. The Guidelines offer a broad framework based on best practice standards that will help government departments to manage the processes and procedures that need to be taken when implementing PPP projects. In this respect, common policy principles provide consistency, confidence and certainty to foreign private investors and help facilitate cross-border PPP projects and enhance greater connectivity through harmonisation of member’s regulatory requirements. ASEAN nations will already have in place PPP laws and policies, and many international agencies provide financial assistance …

Financing Asean Connectivity, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

In line with the globalisation trend, it becomes inevitable for the South East Asian economies to prepare themselves to move towards the path of a more border-less and well-connected world. Evidence has shown that countries can gain a lot from internationalisation, especially from trade, knowledge and information exchanges, and flows of people and goods. One of the key targets of ASEAN in achieving a dynamic, vibrant, globally connected and strong region is to fully realise ASEAN Connectivity which consists of three pillars, namely, physical connectivity, people-to-people connectivity, and institutional connectivity. Physical connectivity is especially important because it is not only …

Evaluating The Environment For Public-Private Partnerships In Asia-Pacific: The 2011 Infrascope, Manisha Mirchandani, Vanesa Sanchez, Manoj Vohra, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Preface This document comprises a summary and analysis of a benchmark index and learning tool that assesses the capacity of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to carry out sustainable publicprivate infrastructure partnerships, as of June 2011. The methodology is based on a similar study of Latin America and the Caribbean published in 2009 and 2010. The index was built by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the Economist Intelligence Unit and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ADB. An Economist …