The global survey by KPMG, conducted in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, surveyed 455 infrastructure executives globally, including 129 from North America. "The key findings from the survey are remarkably consistent in the responses around the globe," said Stephen Beatty, a Partner with KPMG in Canada, and Americas Leader for KPMG's Global Infrastructure practice. "They also closely follow the sentiments expressed by business executives earlier this year in another report—Bridging the Global Infrastructure Gap: Views from the Executive Suite." Beatty led the research project for both reports. Key findings are:
- - Respondents cited governmental effectiveness as their biggest concern
- - Almost half of global respondents cited depoliticization of infrastructure projects, increased transparency, and greater use of public-private partnerships
- - More than a third of all respondents believe that more government intervention is required, including direct contributions, co-lending, more favorable risk allocation, and loan guarantees
- - Almost half of all respondents are very concerned that levels of infrastructure spending are insufficient. Almost three-quarters of respondents are concerned that spending is not enough to sustain their business' long-term growth
- - Almost half of all respondents expressed concern about a lack of availability of people and skills.
Because government decision-makers are perceived as viewing infrastructure too often through a political lens, they are also blamed for not taking the problems in this area seriously enough by failing to provide consistent, long-term leadership. Lack of a sense of urgency, frequent changes in public policy, and even a lack of an appropriate policy were all cited by more than a quarter of global survey respondents as leading public sector impediments in this area.
"National governments cannot meet the challenge of providing 21st century infrastructure alone," said Nick Chism, Head of KPMG's Global Infrastructure and Projects group. "Much has been said about the role of public-private partnerships in delivering the necessary infrastructure improvements and squeezing every last drop of efficiency out of investments from the public coffers. However, partnerships tend to work best when both sides have faith in the other's ability to deliver what is expected of them."
When asked what they saw as the greatest public sector impediments to more infrastructure investments in their respective countries, 36 percent of North American infrastructure providers indicated the politicization of infrastructure project priorities, 31 percent indicated a lack of sense of urgency, 30 percent indicated frequent changes in public policy, and 26 percent indicated a lack of appropriate public policy.
Asked about which factors would likely produce the greatest improvement in governmental effectiveness for infrastructure investment, 47 percent of North American respondents indicated de-politicizing infrastructure public policy, 38 percent indicated more transparency in infrastructure planning and project selection, 36 percent indicated greater use of public-private partnerships, and 28 percent indicated more transparency in infrastructure spending.
"The infrastructure process will never be completely depoliticized and nor should it be-it is an emotive topic involving large amounts of taxpayers' money," said Stephen Beatty. "However, the private sector providers are quite clear on how they believe certain aspects of the political process are slowing or preventing the delivery of much-needed infrastructure improvements."
Transparency also features heavily in the survey, with almost half of providers keen to see greater transparency around infrastructure planning and project selection. Forty percent of respondents also advocated greater use of public-private partnerships; an encouraging response, which suggests that-despite all the perceived problems-the appetite to partner with governments still remains.
"Both infrastructure providers and business leaders agree that delivering needed infrastructure projects is more than a nice to have-it's a fundamental building block supporting our Canadian economy as well as the global economy," said Beatty. "National competitiveness is what's at stake and substantive actions are required, not more talk."
Other findings of the survey include:
- Forty-three percent said that the most viable source of increased funding for infrastructure in their respective countries is effective disposal of existing assets
- Sixty-eight percent cited more steady spending to maintain existing employment and skill base, as a means to improve the availability of relevant skills and people for infrastructure investments
- Sixty percent indicated that designing infrastructure with a greater emphasis on minimizing resource use was required to ensure the necessary resources and raw materials for infrastructure building and refurbishment in their respective countries.
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