As governments turn to the private sector to provide services once delivered by the public sector, they must learn new skills. An increasingly common way to provide the new capacities needed is to establish public-private partnership units - as new agencies or as special cells within a...

National parks in developing countries are home to the planet's most undervalued natural assets. Positive experience with public-private partnerships in nature conservation in Africa shows that they can improve service through professional management and marketing, reduce the need for public...

Each year developing countries seek billions of dollars of investment in their infrastructure, and private investors, mostly in rich countries, seek places to invest trillions of dollars of new savings. Private foreign investment in the infrastructure of developing countries would seem to hold...

Many of the world's most controversial private infrastructure projects originated as unsolicited proposals to governments. This Note explores critical questions for developing policies to deal with unsolicited proposals. For example, under what conditions should governments allow unsolicited...

Investment flows to infrastructure projects with private participation in developing countries grew by 12 percent to US$64 billion in 2004. Telecommunications investments drove the growth, rising by 35 percent, while investment flows to other infrastructure sectors fell by 20 percent. Greenfield...

In recent years the renegotiation and, even more, the cancellation of private infrastructure projects in developing countries have made the headlines in the world's financial press. For a variety of reasons the renegotiation of projects is not an unusual occurrence. But as this Note explains,...

Drawing on the World Bank's private participation in infrastructure project database, this note reviews developments in 2001 and summarizes trends in 1990-2001. Data for 2001 show that total investment in projects with private participation was US$57 billion back to 1995 levels and 150 projects...

Drawing on the World Bank's Private Participation in Infrastructure Project Database, this Note provides an overview of private activity in infrastructure in developing countries between 1990 and 2000. Three main trends characterized that decade: Private activity in infrastructure grew each year...

This note, based on the World Bank's Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) project database, reviews trends in infrastructure projects with private participation in low-income countries. Four main conclusions arise. Surprisingly, the proportion of countries with at least one project -...

Ports have become increasingly capital intensive. Economies of scale have led to larger, more specialized ships, and, competition between ports has started to grow. As a result, governments are reorganizing the way ports are run, and permitting more private ownership, and service delivery....