There are a large number of initiatives that are being implemented in the Asia-Pacific region in support of Public-Private Partnerships for infrastructure development as has been illustrated in the above discussion. As always there are a number of ways in which effectiveness of such initiatives can be enhanced. The meeting is invited to provide guidance on the various services outlined.
1. While there is a wealth of information available through the Internet on PPPs, reviewing all of it represents a daunting task. Consequently, the PPP policy maker or practitioner is faced with the question of "where do I start?" It also needs to be noted that much of the content of the sites is "only information" and as such it does not usually provide the context or a commentary on how it evolved into the form it has taken. Consequently, the policy maker or practitioner is faced with the further question of "will it work in my jurisdiction?" or "how can it be adapted to work in my jurisdiction?"
In order to assist policy makers and practitioners in their endeavours to identify the information that meets their requirements, there is a need for it to be systematically indexed and annotated for easy retrieval of relevant material.
To increase the value of the information that can be shared within a network there is the further need for commentaries on some of the documents that assist in increasing understanding of their content and context.
2. Many of the training materials, courses and tool kits developed for PPPs provide insight into specific topics of public-private partnerships in infrastructure development. There is however a need for the development of comprehensive PPP syllabuses for different levels of policy makers and practitioners. Amongst others this would allow identification of the topics and levels of treatment that are not addressed in current material as well as providing a guideline for policy makers and practitioners.
It would be of considerable benefit if academic and training institutions could be actively involved in this process, perhaps through the development of a network of institutions that have elements of PPP in their existing courses or would be interested in offering them.
3. Advisory services are provided by private sector legal, banking, management consulting and engineering companies as well as the international financial institutions and bilateral and agencies. Most of these are on a fee paying basis or part of technical assistances programmes. Development of a directory of these services and making it available on a network may be of value to PPP policy makers and practitioners.
4. In considering social networking in general and the "PPP Network" in particular, some of the reasons for low participation may include:
1. In order to join the Google Groups it is necessary to open a gmail account. If this is not the regular email account of the member then he or she may not look at the "PPP Network" site very often or may even forget their password.
2. Some members may find it difficult to use the software.
3. Many members are government officials and may be reluctant to express their views that may be construed as being government policy. Similarly they may be unwilling to ask questions for fear of exposing weakness in policy or practice.
4. Another observation is that PPP officials are very busy people and find it difficult to allocate time to a network.
The Meeting may wish to provide guidance on ways in which these issues may be addressed.
5. As a concept, a network with a permanent secretariat receives widespread support. In practice, however it is a difficult concept to implement in a sustainable manner.
The principle constraint is that of "sustainable funding". In the case of the ECE Team of Specialists, ad hoc extrabudgetary resources and the good-will of a number of individuals and companies is used. For AIDA, funding was proposed to come from contributions from the public and private sector, however, for a number of reasons discussed above this did not materialize. For EPEC, funding (including staff resources) is provided by the EIB with some additional support by the European Commission with a nominal contribution requested from recipient countries. This arrangement however is up for review this year.
The meeting may wish to consider innovative means of addressing this constraint.