PPP associations - who they are and what they do?

Setting PPP market is not an easy task for the government when both public and also private sector lacks capacity to play its role in PPP. The establishment of a single PPP coordinating entity is commonly used worldwide in order to improve the institutional framework and allow public entities to manage PPP projects in a more efficient way. PPP units are formed in order to evaluate, coordinate and monitor the project flow across sectors, monitor the fiscal impact of the entire project flow on the national budget but also to act as a centre of excellence generating and disseminating knowledge to distinct line ministries thus strengthening their capability to partner in equal terms with their private counterparts. Moreover, PPP units act as the driving force of the governmental PPP policy as well as the single channel of communication with the project shareholders including numerous private sector companies.

However, the creation of a robust PPP market requires the set up of a mechanism which facilitates and enhances the communication between the two major counterparts: the public and the private sector. Governments often proceed with market reforms based on their own intuitions or third parties’ advice hoping to create an attractive infrastructure market for the private sector to invest in. However, very few governments seek private sector’s opinion on the functionality of the market and rarely consult with it before implementing these reforms. At the end of the day, bankers, equity investors, operators and construction companies provide limited input for and feedback upon the establishment of the PPP market in which they are expected to invest.

This is attributed to the fact that the public sector usually hesitates to enter direct discussions with private companies for the shake of transparency and in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Additionally, it is practically impossible for the implementation agency or the PPP unit to efficiently communicate with hundreds of private companies ranging from financial, legal, technical advisors to international lending institutions, constructors and operators.

In order to address this communication mismatch between the public and the private sector in the PPP market, private sector companies form panels, alliances or associations in several countries around the world. The uniting force of these PPP Associations is the common need to communicate with public counterparties on issues of project pipeline, policies and legislation but also to share knowledge and exchange ideas with their own community.

The five PPP Associations used as an example in this article are:

(1) NCPPP of US, which mission is to advocate and facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships at the federal, state and local levels, where appropriate, and to raise the awareness of governments and businesses of the means by which their cooperation can cost effectively provide the public with quality goods, services and facilities;
(2) CCPPP: the objective of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships is to foster innovative forms of cooperation between the public sector - at the municipal, regional, provincial and federal levels - and the private sector, for the benefit of all Canadians.;
(3) IFSL: was established to promote the UK-based financial services industry throughout the world,;
(4) APPP: was established for support and development of public investment and services using the PPP form in the Czech Republic; and
(5) IPA: To brink together the public and private sectors to promote partnerships in infrastructure and provide cross-industry leadership in Australia.
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What are the objectives of PPP Associations? The sets of objectives can be sorted by following 4 categories:
(a) Promotion of PPPs
(b) Building PPP environment
(c) Capacity building and knowledge sharing in PPPs
(d) Communication facilitation public v private
(e) Support of vested interests of the community

Analyses of the above mentioned objectives shows quite clearly, that objectives of 5 Associations are the same in promoting PPPs, building the capacity in PPPs and facilitating the communication. The Associations that are more or less private state as their objective also support of the vested interests of the community, while the associations with mixed membership do not have this objective and private sector interest might be in a way melted away, however the association its self might be able to provide internal platform for communicating these interests to public sector if the membership is representative enough. Only Czech APPP has as its objective to influence the PPP environment and cultivation of PPP legislation, which can be explained by early stage of the PPP market and the need that private sector sees locally, which is not necessarily the case in other developed countries.

Key added values of PPP Associations:
PPP Associations are clearly private sector demand driven. Private companies only support (by dedicating finance and time) PPP Associations when they see added value in the performance and input that association can deliver to their industry on a market or they see a lot of value in association member services.

How they reach their objectives? What are their means?
PPP Associations are using as a tools to reach their objectives following activities:

Conducting objective research on key issues that influence the effective use of partnerships
- Providing communication Forums
- Compilation of a resource library on PPP issues and projects
- An annual conference and regional events on a wide variety of PPP topics
- Informative newsletters (Public-Private Bulletin) on activities, news and issues discussed at the national conference
- Workshops and seminars that allow participants to share innovative ideas and solutions through a national network
- Sponsored publications, including research papers, case studies, guidelines, opinion surveys and national inventories on key public-private partnership subjects
- Annual Awards of successful PPP projects
- Web side based applications informing members community of PPP happenings and transactions coming to market
- Producing and publishing successful PPP Case studies