Figures released by the World Bank show that investment commitments in infrastructure projects with private participation, or public-private investments (PPIs), in developing economies totaled $93.3bn in 2017, constituting an increase of 37% from 2016. PPIs in the energy sector reached $51.9bn in 2017, or 55.6% of the total, followed by those in the transportation industry with $36.5bn (39.1%), investments in the information and communications technology sector (ICT) with $3bn (3.2%), and those in the water & sewage industry with $1.9bn (2%). On a regional basis, the East Asia & Pacific region attracted 52.5% of total PPIs last year, followed by Latin America & the Caribbean (20.8%), South Asia (12.5%), the Middle East & North Africa (6.3%), Europe & Central Asia (5.7%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (2.3%). In parallel, there were 304 infrastructure projects financed through PPIs in 2017, of which 203 projects were in the energy sector, 66 in transportation, 30 projects in the water sector and five projects were in ICT. As such, the average investment commitment per project was $307m last year compared to $244m in 2016. Further, 52 developing economies received PPIs in 2017, up from 37 economies in 2016, and relative to an average of 41 countries in the previous five years. China attracted $17.5bn across 73 projects, followed by Indonesia with $15.4bn (11 projects), Mexico with $8.6bn (20 projects), Brazil with $7.3bn (24 projects) and Pakistan with $5.9bn (four projects). The five countries attracted $54.5bn in PPIs, or 58% of the total, in 2017.
Source: World Bank, Byblos Research