Building capacity for public-private partnerships on infrastructure design and development

An executive leadership programme on public-private partnerships (PPPs) for officials from Commonwealth Asia will be held at the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, from 20 to 29 April 2009. The event is co-organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) and Bond University’s Mirvac School of Sustainable Development. This programme is aimed at building the capacity of senior to mid-level government officials on PPP project design, development and implementation of infrastructure projects.

The programme will focus on policy development and implementation; project initiation, development and procurement; and evaluation and analysis. Participants will also examine issues such as risk identification and management, regulation, project finance and process structure and management.

“Public-private partnerships are a form of contractual arrangement that aims to achieve value for money in public procurement, improve government service delivery and contribute to stronger regional economic growth and development,” said Hee Kong Yong, Adviser on Public-Private Partnership at GIDD.

“PPPs are complex but when the partnership is equitable in terms of risk and rewards, the benefits can be optimised in public works projects,” he added. “This workshop will look at the structure of PPPs and the best practice principles and lessons learned on joint-venture projects. It will also look at sustainable development principles, cost benefit and economic impact analysis, and the risk transfer, measurement and management. Issues including life-cycle costing and asset revaluation and refinancing will also be discussed.”

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• Country Profile: Australia
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