There is currently little consistency in the financing of critical infrastructure

Around the world are examples of infrastructure that can be deemed too important to fail; it is tempting to look for lessons to be learned from the finance approaches taken to fund these projects. Sadly, there is little consistency of approach. For example, each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has a different approach to the water sector.

Much of the electricity generation across the globe is developed, financed, and operated by private parties whether through privatization or concession-type arrangements, as illustrated by Figures 2 and 3. Approaches to the infrastructure required for generating electricity range from the generation being part of an

integrated energy company that interfaces directly with retail and corporate consumers to single merchant power companies that sell electricity to the grid operator.

Much of mass transit is publicly owned. For example, Delhi Metro is a joint venture between the Government of India and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. Other mass transit ventures are privately owned, such as Singapore's multimodel transport provider (SMRT), which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange with Temasek (the Singapore government's sovereign wealth fund) owning 54 percent of the company. Some mass transit endeavors are public-private partnerships, albeit with very mixed success. For example, London Underground's infrastructure network was operated under a public-private partnership contract but is now back in public ownership.

Airports exhibit a whole range of approaches from publicly owned and operated to fully privatized. Delhi Airport provides a good example of a partnership approach between the government and the private sector (see Case Study 1: Delhi International Airport Limited).

Figure 3: Investment commitments to electricity projects with private participation in developing countries, by segment (1990-2008)

Source: World Bank and PPIAF, 2008, slide 26.