Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica top the indicators in Infrascope 2021/2022, which evaluates the capacity of countries to mobilize private investment via public-private partnerships.

The Infrascope 2021-2022 study finds that Latin American and Caribbean countries have made major strides toward creating environments that favor the emergence of efficient and sustainable public-private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure.

Brazil and Chile especially stand out in this area, while Colombia, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica also show good performance.

In general, the region has already laid the regulatory and institutional foundations for developing PPPs, and countries should now focus on improving project preparation, funding, and risk management, the report says.

Infrascope 2021-2022 is the seventh edition in a series of studies conducted every two years by Economist Impact, the analysis arm of The Economist Group, and commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The findings were presented today at an event featuring Mauricio Claver-Carone, President of the IDB, and Vaibhav Sahgal, Principal for the Americas at Economist Impact.

Richard Martínez, Vice President for Countries at the IDB, moderated a panel with government officials from Colombia, Peru, Chile and Paraguay on the opportunities and challenges of PPPs. Jessica Bedoya, Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer at the IDB, also discussed the outlook for PPPs in the region with international investors and developers.

The new edition of the Infrascope was expanded to include all 26 borrowing member countries of the IDB and features a new indicator framework to reflect the latest developments in PPPs for infrastructure. These developments include social and environmental sustainability, fiscal control and budget planning, transparency and accountability, and new financial instruments.

"Public-private partnerships offer a major opportunity to expand markets, create jobs, and contribute to the region’s economic recovery and growth, since they foster sustainability, efficiency and innovation," said President Claver-Carone. "That’s why the IDB supports collaboration between the public and private sectors through our one-stop shop for PPPs. The first step in this process is understanding each country’s challenges and opportunities, which is why analytical tools like the Infrascope are so important.”

The study found that creating environments to better enable the development and implementation of PPPs for infrastructure is crucial to enhancing the efficiency, sustainability, public-private balance and quality of this mechanism in the region.

The study also points out that to develop fiscally viable infrastructure PPPs that are of high financial quality, it is necessary to reduce uncertainty via transparent, consistent and efficient risk allocation, and by applying lessons learned through ongoing project-performance monitoring.

It also recommends that countries place more emphasis on sustainability and preparation for the future to ensure economic and social infrastructure will withstand the test of time and climate change.