The long life of infrastructure assets means certain trade-offs must be explicitly addressed accross commercial, contractual, and financing arrangements

Private finance can be successfully used for long-term arrangements, but before doing so the procuring authority needs to think carefully about how the infrastructure may need to respond to changing conditions.

These considerations are likely to involve some tradeoffs, such as the level of risk transfer vs. the level of profit, the certainty of a fixed return vs. the need for flexibility to accommodate changed circumstances. Concession length must also be considered.

There is no single correct response to all financing requirements, and what is appropriate in one situation might be unacceptable in another. However, none of the related issues are new and there are examples of experience across the globe that can help understand the consequences of certain choices.