As 2018 comes to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support this past year. The Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) had an ambitious agenda for 2018 and we are pleased to say that, with the help of our partners and stakeholders, we have been able to achieve some important milestones.
The most significant event of the year for us was the decision in July by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to extend the mandate of the GI Hub for another four years.
This reflects the continuing importance that the G20 places on infrastructure as an economic driver, and as a means for addressing inequality and improving social outcomes. It means that we will be able to continue our work in delivering innovative research, facilitating greater knowledge sharing, helping connect the public and private sectors, and highlighting policy reform opportunities across infrastructure markets.
Outcomes from 2018
Throughout the year, we released new tools and resources to help markets address challenges in infrastructure delivery, and we deepened our country engagements. In particular, Africa has been a key focus.
In support of the G20’s Compact with Africa (CWA) initiative, we updated two of our flagship reports, Global Infrastructure Outlook and InfraCompass, to include ten of the countries participating in the CWA initiative.
Further, we announced the African Infrastructure Fellowship Program, and hosted a major PPP workshop in cooperation with Nigeria’s Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission—one of the five regional workshops we undertook during the year.
The Abuja workshop provided an opportunity for the GI Hub to showcase its PPP Contract Management tool launched in July. The tool provides practical guidance to governments wishing to improve the management of PPP projects during the construction, operation and handback phases. It contains extensive data and real-life case studies, and is based on an in-depth interrogation of 250 infrastructure PPPs reaching financial close between 2005 and 2015, to understand their successes and challenges.
Where to in 2019
Globally, the economic environment remains uncertain, and the IMF has recently downgraded predictions for growth in both advanced and developing economies. In the face of this, our strong view is that investment in infrastructure must continue.
Encouraging and increasing private participation in infrastructure—either through PPPs or other means—remains a priority for the GI Hub.
In the first half of next year, we will be releasing a number of tools that focus on delivering quality infrastructure. These include:
- Reference tool on Inclusive Infrastructure and Social Equity—which will help governments design major infrastructure projects so as to maximise socially inclusive outcomes and tackle inequality.
- Reference tool on Government Processes Facilitating Project Preparation—this tool will closely examine the relationships between countries’ institutional arrangements for project preparation, funding programs, project identification, feasibility studies and project structuring.
- Leading Practice tool on Output Indicators for Quality Infrastructure—which will provide guidance on the development of output specifications for quality infrastructure PPP projects.
- Update to the PPP Risk Allocation tool—which will include new project types in the social and economic infrastructure sectors, and an expanded treatment of demand and foreign exchange risks. The new version of this very popular tool will also examine the impacts of civil law codes on risk allocation arrangements, and address recent developments in global PPP markets.
We will also be releasing the next Global Infrastructure Investor Survey, and we are in discussions with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network to build upon the forecasts already included in Global Infrastructure Outlook on the investment needed to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to infrastructure.
Work will also continue to increase the level of engagement on our Global Infrastructure Project Pipeline from governments and private sector infrastructure investors. We will also be looking to assist individual countries in developing their own pipelines.
Finally, as announced in September by the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, Canada will support the GI Hub in establishing an ancillary office in Toronto. This is an exciting prospect for the GI Hub and we are very much looking forward to the opportunities this will provide.
The GI Hub has again set an ambitious and challenging agenda for the year ahead, closely linked to the priorities of the G20’s Infrastructure Working Group. However, with the support of our partners, we are confident that we can continue to deliver initiatives that will help all countries build capacity, develop sound policy and governance frameworks, and facilitate greater investment to help provide the infrastructure that their citizens need.