Industry and government experience shows that earlier market engagement with a focus on risk transparency and collaboration tend to drive healthier and more open conversations. This results in high-performing infrastructure that is better designed and delivered.74
Early engagement should involve comprehensive and transparent risk workshops with potential delivery partners. These will help governments to better understand if projects are scoped and packaged in ways that can be successfully delivered by industry.75
The prevalence of mega-projects and mega-contracts is escalating.76
Governments can reduce the likelihood of market failure and increase competition by packaging the work in line with project fundamentals and market capacity. A range of methods can achieve this, including partitioning, Joint venturing, interfacing and/or staggering commencement and delivery.77 Staggering can be implemented with quality investment practices such as real options analysis.78
Earlier market engagement will also help government project teams to determine the most appropriate delivery method, based on industry's capacity and the project type. This will create best practice guidelines for market engagement during early project phases.
" Earlier market engagement with a focus on risk transparency and collaboration tend to drive healthier and more open conversations. "
The guidelines should cover topics such as multi-stage bidding, industry feedback on design, and government-led implementation of constructability, maintainability and operability reviews. To encourage this new approach, governments should develop commercial and collaboration skills across all infrastructure delivery agencies.