Public Project

Gundes, S. (2022) Trends in Global Infrastructure Investment and Financial Consequences. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 11(1), 66-76. https://doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2022.v11n1p66
Abstract
Governments all around the world are faced with economic and social problems borne from the need for modern and reliable infrastructure. Rapid urbanization, increasing population size and economic growth are the main causes of increasing infrastructure investment needs in the world. While the need is growing, government budgets are increasingly squeezed by demands for healthcare improvements, defence, education and many others. The problems in the provision of finance for these investments are aggravated with the new Covid crisis, as the funds reserved for infrastructure investments are now likely to be allocated to urgent needs such as healthcare and unemployment benefits. In such a volatile environment, identifying future investment needs and discussing how these needs will be met is important and timely more than ever. This paper, introduces the global infrastructure investment trends in the future and discusses the use of public and private finance for infrastructure spending. In this concept, the following questions are explored, (1) What is the volume and trend of global infrastructure investment needs? (2) How do infrastructure investment needs differ among regions? (3) How will this infrastructure investment needs be financed?, and (4) What may be some of the future issues to be solved? To find out future infrastructure investment needs and trends, reports outlining the future prospects of the infrastructure sector are examined and trends are revealed. Then, a review of financing mechanisms is introduced in the light of the main procurement systems used by governments for realizing infrastructure projects. In this concept, design-bid-build, design-build and project finance models are explored in terms of their organizational and financial structure. Future issues to be solved are mainly derived from a cross examination of concerns raised in published infrastructure investment case studies and of future trends. Results reveal that the need for investment in infrastructure is growing steadily. As a response to this growth, the use of private finance is increasingly being encouraged by governments all over the world and a variety of international organizations. However, it appears that long-standing private finance issues predominantly observed in demand-based projects will continue to be discussed over the coming years by policymakers, scholars and communities. Indeed, many governments and organizations are already speeding up research efforts into ensuring the resilience of public private partnerships (PPP) in infrastructure projects. The insights from this research are expected to revive interest and research efforts into the potential future challenges for infrastructure financing and options available for governments.

This study is mainly discussed on three cases which formed the base for investigation of the study regarding the Governance Framework of Public Projects in Bangladesh. The study looked at what are the factors and participants forming the framework and how they are affecting the Project works and how compatible they are with their aims. The study concludes with the importance of Project governance framework & areas of improvement are highlighted.

This study aims to shed light on the importance of SMEs' contribution in the development of public projects, as one of the most important elements in the national economy, if allowed by legislative and legal texts. Using an analytical and critical approach, we will try to discuss the content of Article n° 55bis of public transactions code modified in 2012, in comparison with its 2010's content. The study concluded that, despite the interest of SMEs' contribution in the development of public projects given in Article 55bis 1, but still some lacks and ambiguity to be corrected in order to enable SMEs to participate in meeting more public demand.

In traditional cost-benefit analyses of public projects, every citizen’s willingness to pay for a project is given an equal weight. This is sometimes taken to imply that cost-benefit analysis is a democratic method for making public decisions, as opposed to, for example, political processes involving log-rolling and lobbying from interest groups. Politicians are frequently criticized for not putting enough emphasis on the cost-benefit analyses when making decisions. In this paper we discuss the extent to which using cost-benefit analysis to rank public projects is consistent with Dahl’s (1989) criteria for democratic decision-making. We find several fundamental conflicts, both when cost-benefit analysis is used to provide final answers about projects’ social desirability, and when used only as informational input to a political process. Our conclusions are illustrated using data from interviews with Norwegian politicians.

EDITORIAL PREAMBLE: The first issue of Water Alternatives presents a set of papers that investigates the inherently political nature of water resources management. A Water, Politics and Development initiative was started at ZEF (Center for Development Research, Bonn, Germany) in 2004/2005 in the context of a national-level discussion on the role of social science in global (environmental) change research. In April 2005 a roundtable workshop with this title was held at ZEF, sponsored by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/German Research Foundation) and supported by the NKGCF (Nationales Komitee fur Global Change Forschung/German National Committee on Global Change Research), aiming to design a research programme in the German context. In 2006 it was decided to design a publication project on a broader, European and international basis. The Irrigation and Water Engineering Group at Wageningen University, the Netherlands joined as a co-organiser and co-sponsor. The collection of ...

1Università della Svizzera italiana and Observatoire des Sciences et Techniques, via Lambertenghi 10a, 6904 Lugano; tel. +41 58 666 46 14; fax. +41 58 666 46 19; e-mail: blepori@unisi.ch 2 Joanneum Research, Wien. 3 National Center for Science System Assessment, Rathenau Instituut, ...

1Università della Svizzera italiana and Observatoire des Sciences et Techniques, via Lambertenghi 10a, 6904 Lugano; tel. +41 58 666 46 14; fax. +41 58 666 46 19; e-mail: blepori@unisi.ch 2 Joanneum Research, Wien. 3 National Center for Science System Assessment, Rathenau Instituut, ...

Governments all around the world are faced with economic and social problems borne from the need for modern and reliable infrastructure. Rapid urbanization, increasing population size and economic growth are the main causes of increasing infrastructure investment needs in the world. While the need is growing, government budgets are increasingly squeezed by demands for healthcare improvements, defence, education and many others. The problems in the provision of finance for these investments are aggravated with the new Covid crisis, as the funds reserved for infrastructure investments are now likely to be allocated to urgent needs such as healthcare and unemployment benefits. In such a volatile environment, identifying future investment needs and discussing how these needs will be met is important and timely more than ever. This paper, introduces the global infrastructure investment trends in the future and discusses the use of public and private finance for infrastructure spending. I...

Though contingent valuation is the dominant technique for the valuation of public projects, especially in the environmental sector, the high costs of contingent valuation surveys prevent the use of this method for the assessment of relatively small projects. The reason for this cost problem is that typically only contingent valuation studies which are based on face-to-face interviews are accepted as leading to valid results. Especially in countries with high wages face-to-face surveys are extremely costly considering that for a valid contingent valuation study a minimum of 1,000 completed face-to-face interviews is required. In this paper we try a rehabilitation of mail surveys as low-budget substitutes for costly face-to-face surveys. Based on an empirical contingent valuation study in Northern Thailand we show that the validity of mail surveys can be improved significantly if so-called citizen expert groups are employed for a thorough survey design.

The paper discusses the definition of a framework of principles for the management of regions of archaeo-cultural value, which are destined to sustain modern development. Kouklia-Palaepaphos in SW Cyprus, where a three-year pilot project is taking place, is an extensive archaeological region, rich in sensitive anthropogenic data, which lacks a management plan that would render the preservation and enhancement of its archaeological resources, and its economic development, mutually compatible operations. The project combines, (a) geophysical surveys (extensive coverage) and excavations (small-scale in high risk plots); (b) production of a 3D digital land relief of the archaeological zone, with current property and land-use status; (c) development of a multidimensional digital platform using GIS, which will combine cartographic information with archaeological data, organised on a relational database. The final product is an electronic macro-scale management and planning tool for the re...

Charitable contributions are frequently made over time. Donors are free to contribute whenever they wish and as often as they want, and are frequently updated on the level of contributions by others. A dynamic structure enables donors to condition their contribution on that of ...

Although contingent valuation is the dominant technique for the valuation of public projects, especially in the environmental sector, the high costs of contingent valuation surveys prevent the use of this method for the assessment of relatively small projects. The reason for this cost ...

Cost-benefit analysis is a major step in carrying out a feasibility study, as it allows for expressing an opinion on the economic and social value of the project as well as for a ranking according to their potential to create or increase net social benefits. Among the weaknesses of this type of analysis, we might mention that its applicability is quite limited in terms of social policies, it requires a high level of practical experience and the capacity of risk event handling, especially for projects that produce particularly long-term intangible qualitative benefits. Overall, one may conclude that the cost-benefit analysis is much more than a simple exercise in algebra, requiring the capacity to master various techniques to allow for estimates in the medium and long run.