CDB hosts Public-Private Partnerships ‘Boot Camp’ workshops for 40 regional participants

In a bid to further provide practical support to regional governments who are seeking to implement Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is currently hosting the first of three PPP Boot Camps at its headquarters in Barbados.

The Boot Camps are part of the US$1.2 million Regional PPP Support Program, which was launched in May 2015, in partnership with the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank (WB), and the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF). The aim is to assist regional governments in planning their involvement in PPPs and in training their staff to develop and implement the projects.

Speaking at the beginning of the session, Patricia McKenzie, Vice President, Operations at CDB, said: “When structured properly, with good regulation and qualified private operators, PPPs can deliver superior results than traditionally publicly procured infrastructure projects, in terms of innovation, climate resilience and value for money. However, PPPs are more complex to structure, implement and monitor… Innovative solutions are therefore needed, to unlock private sector investment and efficiency. The list of infrastructure sectors where PPP opportunity exists is long, including energy (both conventional and renewable), ports, airports, water and sanitation, roads and tourism.”

Forty participants from government agencies across the region are participating in the Boot Camps, which are intended to be practical training sessions that cover different phases of the PPP project cycle. Topics covered will range from developing the necessary government policies, to conducting feasibility studies, to structuring transactions, to managing contracts.

Participants are from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The second Boot Camp will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in November, and the final camp in Jamaica in 2016.

CDB is the primary implementing agency for the Regional PPP Support Program, which is led by coordinator Brian Samuel. Substantial technical support will be provided by CDB’s multilateral development partners, while the PPP team builds its technical capacity. This will include financial contributions, plus technical support from specialist consultants.