Colombia - Recent Economic Developments in Infrastructure : Balancing Social and Productive Needs for Infrastructure, Volume 2. Main Report

The purpose of this study is to provide an integral evaluation of recent economic developments in Colombia's infrastructure sectors. Specifically, the study covers the electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, water, and transport sectors. Colombia presents high levels of access to basic household services compared to its Latin American peers, while access to services in the country is relatively equitable across the income spectrum, but relatively inequitable between urban and rural areas. However, Colombia lags behind its peers as regards paved roads, internet access, and electricity generation capacity. Energy use is strongly driven by the underlying structure of the economy, and paved road density is driven by the internal spatial distribution of economic activity. Moreover, there is mixed evidence as to the relative quality, and efficiency of Colombia's infrastructure service providers. The report stipulates Colombia needs to enhance its performance on productive infrastructure, while preserving its achievements in the social sphere. On the basis of this comparative assessment, the challenge for Colombia would appear to lie primarily in reorienting its infrastructure investments towards the productive sectors, without jeopardizing its strong performance in social infrastructure. While the private sector can play an important role in addressing the deficits in energy and telecommunications, the key challenge of financing improvements in the road network will necessarily remain a predominantly public responsibility, given that the limited scope for toll roads has already been largely exploited.