Bogotá.—Much has been said about the importance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in boosting the nation’s infrastructure, but to date only two privately initiated projects have been approved, which is why the national government plans to increase its funding to 30%.
This measure is included in the 2014–2018 National Development Plan, which will be submitted to Congress and amends Law 1508 of 2012, which stated that «public funds could not exceed 20% of the project’s estimated investment budget.».
Now, with the increase to 30% in the allocation of resources—specifically, the percentage of public funds in privately initiated public-private partnerships (PPPs)—business leaders such as Juan Luis Aristizábal, president of Conconcreto, stated that this allocation makes such partnerships and projects more attractive, since the previous percentage discouraged private investment.
To date, the National Department of Planning’s (DNP) Single Registry of Public-Private Partnerships (Ruapp) lists 280 initiatives since March 2012, divided into 241 TP3T initiatives funded with public resources and 751 TP3T initiatives without government funding. In terms of project types, road construction accounts for 43.4%, followed by urban transportation with 9.6%, public parking lots with 6.1%, and traffic control with 3.8%, among others.
Iván Darío Botero, a professor of public procurement at ESAP, said that this new allocation of resources is a clear initiative by President Juan Manuel Santos to stimulate the economy through private investment, particularly in the area of infrastructure, which has been relatively uncompetitive.
According to the expert, when this issue comes up for debate, it is very likely that the figure will neither increase nor decrease, since the National Planning Department and the Ministry of Finance have already done the calculations to determine how much they can finance.
It should be noted that the government has 20 PPP initiatives on the table that are ready for approval, which will represent an initial investment of $17 trillion.
Natalia Abello, Minister of Transportation, noted that this initiative establishes regulations for the first time governing the creation of public-private partnerships in the transportation sector; she therefore stated that the increase in public funding will be 30% for initiatives that promote the development of mobility in the country.
However, according to information from the National Planning Department, the percentage increase in private-sector PPPs would apply only to sectors other than road transportation, although public-sector PPPs are not subject to this restriction.
Under these circumstances, the percentage of privately funded infrastructure projects would remain at 20%, although Congress needs to evaluate the possibility of extending this new participation to other sectors.
