Private Participation in Infrastructure in Developing Countries : Trends, Impacts, and Policy Lessons

Harris, Clive

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: ACCOUNTABILITY;    AIRPORTS;    ASSETS;    AUTONOMY;    BANKRUPTCY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-5512-0
RP-ID  :  26526

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Governments have long recognized thevital role that modern infrastructure services play ineconomic growth and poverty alleviation. For much of thepost-Second World War period, most governments entrusteddelivery of these services to state-owned monopolies. But inmany developing countries, the results were disappointing.Public sector monopolies were plagued by inefficiency. Manywere strapped for resources because governments succumbed topopulist pressures to hold prices below costs. Fiscalpressures, and the success of the pioneers of theprivatization of infrastructure services, providedgovernments with a new paradigm. Many governments sought toinvolve the private sector in the provision and financing ofinfrastructure services. The shift to the private provisionthat occurred during the 1990s was much more rapid andwidespread than had been anticipated at the start of thedecade. By 2001, developing countries had seen over $755billion of investment flows in nearly 2500 infrastructureprojects. However, these flows peaked in 1997, and havefallen more or less steadily ever since. These declines havebeen accompanied by high profile cancellations orrenegotiations of some projects, a reduction in investorappetite for these activities and, in some parts of theworld, a shift in public opinion against the privateprovision of infrastructure services. The current sense ofdisillusionment stands in stark contrast to what should inretrospect be surprise at the spectacular growth of privateinfrastructure during the 1990s.