Bond University academics from the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture Jim Smith and Michael Regan in conjunction with Peter Love from Curtin University, have won a Best Research Paper award at the 2013 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) COBRA International Refereed Conference held in New Delhi from the 10th - 12th of September 2013.
Their paper, “Financing Mechanisms for Public Private Partnerships: Australian Experience” won the award of Best Paper in the ‘Property, Finance and Infrastructure’ theme category. Three subject theme awards in total were given at the conference and this paper won one of those awards.
The Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture at Bond University was represented with six papers presented by Professor Jim Smith, with joint authors Michael Regan, Peter Love and Sabina Cerimagic.
Below is an abstract of the paper.
Financing mechanisms for public private partnerships: Australian experience
Michael Regan, Jim Smith and Peter Love
Recent events in international capital markets has had major impact on the ongoing rollout of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and slowed their use. Capital has been hard to source especially for projects over $300 million, the patronage risk model for economic infrastructure is no longer available, debt is more expensive than it was 18 months ago and credit risk insurance is no longer readily available. This has affected bid markets and slowed the delivery of new infrastructures with longer-term implications for economic performance across the whole economy.
There are two broad approaches that government can take to PPP procurement. Firstly, it may make greater use of alternate procurement mechanisms such as alliance contracting, management outsourcing and traditional procurement. Secondly, it may rethink its role in the PPP process and preserve the model by reducing risk and/or participate in the provision of debt finance. This paper reviews prevailing capital market conditions and state investment evaluation. It examines the empirical evidence to identify the options for state provision of infrastructure and direct financial participation in PPP projects.