Australia's average PPP procurement times are significantly shorter than those in the UK, (though slightly longer than those in Canada). PPP procurement processes in Spain and Portugal are shorter (and less complex) than those in Australia, but are not directly comparable, as their Governments' aims for PPPs differ from those in Australia. Shorter procurement timeframes are not desirable in Australia if they are at the expense of the overall value for money and innovation achieved by projects.
Canada (using in essence the same procurement process as Australia) has been able to reduce the time from release of a request for EOIs to financial close over the last three years (from an average of about 18 months to 16 months). Canadian market participants consider the Interactive Tender Process as instrumental in enabling Canada to emerge as a leader in PPP, with projects regularly closing with little to no scope creep after selection of a preferred bidder. Canada has offered the bidding community clarity on timeline, and recent projects have reached financial close an average of four months or less from bid submission. Canada also rarely uses further bid stages.