G20 Development Working Group Submissions
INFRASTRUCTURE'
Gaps in infrastructure, including those in energy,
transport, communications, water and regional
infrastructure are significant bottlenecks to increasing
and maintaining growth in many developing
countries.
Recognizing this, the G20 made commitments
in its 2010 MYAP to take action by addressing
infrastructure gaps. The G20 undertook to overcome
obstacles to infrastructure investment, develop
project pipelines, improve capacity and facilitate
increased finance for infrastructure investment in
developing countries, in particular LICs.
MYAP Commitment 1 saw G20 members request
that regional development banks and the World
Bank Group should work jointly to prepare action
plans that increase public, semi-public and private
finance and improve implementation of national
and regional infrastructure projects, including
those in energy, transport communication and
water in developing countries, LICS in particular.
The multilateral development banks (MDBs) were
asked to pursue actions in five areas: information
and needs assessment; internal practices; improving
domestic infrastructure investment climate; special
measures for regional integration and transparency
and sustainability.
The G20 has made solid progress on infrastructure
and has completed many of the actions agreed
under the MYAP, including establishing a High-
Level Panel on Infrastructure (HLP), as well as
implementing HLP recommendations.
However, other uncompleted commitments are
progressing slowly, including bottlenecks in LICs that
hamper investment, outcomes of regional initiatives
on transparency in procurement, construction
and finance and on integration of environment
safeguards. Irrespective of a future design for a new
Action Plan, continuation of efforts and follow-up on
these commitments are strongly needed.
Saint Petersburg Accountability Report on G20 Development Commitments
16
Chapter 2
Implementation of G20 Commitments
on Development
Infrastructure Success Story
The DWG has prompted important progress in
improving MDB policy frameworks for infrastructure investment.
The share of MDB resources dedicated to public-private
partnership (PPP) transactions, and mobilization of private
investment were identified as a key bottleneck. Partly as a
result of G20 efforts, the World Bank's Infrastructure Strategy
approved in December 2011 and the Asian Development
Bank's (ADB) PPP Operational Plan approved in April 2012
introduced incentives for staff to focus on leveraging rather than
lending resources to be able to undertake complex catalytic and
regional projects. Other MDBs are considering similar initiatives.
In March 2012, the working group of MDB Heads of
Procurement provided guidance on how to apply harmonized
procurement principles in PPP operations to public sector
recipients. In the meantime, when collaborating on joint projects,
most MDBs agreed to adopt a pragmatic approach by seeking
explicit policy waivers to use the rules and procedures of the lead
MDB. MDBs will continue their efforts to harmonize procurement
practices and make them more responsive to scaling up financing
and diversify sources of finance by facilitating collaboration with
the private sector and other MDBs.
MDBs are also prioritizing regional initiatives based
on existing good practices, including support for developing
countries to prepare materials necessary for raising private
capital. The ADB, together with the World Bank Institute (WBI)
and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is developing a
PPP sourcebook to cover the essential areas of knowledge related
to PPP project and policy development and implementation.
In-Depth Assessment: Commitment 2 - "Identify
infrastructure gaps, needs and funding
requirements particularly for regional and rural
infrastructure, as well as opportunities to promote
public-private and semi-public partnerships".
Alignment with Core G20 and DWG Mandate
In order to remove a key inhibitor of private and
semi-public infrastructure investment, improving
project preparation facilities (PPFs) remains a key
Since 2010, France, the Republic of
Korea, the United States, Turkey and Mexico
have co-facilitated this work under the
DWG's Infrastructure Pillar. MDBs have
been major contributors.View entire presentation