The Bukele administration plans to develop five infrastructure projects in El Salvador under the Public-Private Partnership model, which would require an investment of approximately $545 million.
The works of illumination of highways, the construction of a terminal of load and an administrative center, are some of the projects that the administration Bukele plans to tender and award in El Salvador, under the format of Public Private Partner.
In the four years that the law of associations between the State and private companies in El Salvador has been in effect, not a single infrastructure project has been able to materialize using this business scheme.
Although there are at least seven infrastructure projects that were initially proposed as being those with the highest priority and ideals to be developed under the public-private partnership scheme and with funding from Fomilenio II, none of them has managed to materialize.
When public resources are very limited, as it happens in Central American countries, association schemes between the State and the private sector become essential for developing the infrastructure that the region so badly needs.
A report from the Secretariat of Economic Integration (Sieca) states that "...In Central America, growing fiscal constraints faced by the countriespublic sectors make it increasingly difficult to achieve efforts for long-term infrastructure projects.In this context, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) become relevant as an alternative measure of financing where private participation sector is facilitated in partnership with the government, with the aim of improving quality of services, reducing operating costs and capital, generating additional income, improving public management and minimizing budget spending.
In Guatemala a proposal has been made for private companies to build toll roads, where, in some cases the State pays for the tolls, instead of charging road users.
The proposal of this investment model was raised in the context of the National Entrepreneurs Encounter (Enade), focused this year on the theme of infrastructure.
An announcement has been made in Guatemala that work is being done on a draft specification for the six companies already pre-qualified to participate in the tender, which is now scheduled for the first quarter of this year.
The National Agency for Development Economic Infrastructure (ANADIE) has resumed the process of hiring a company for the construction, maintenance and operation of the State Administrative Center (CAE), after having announced its postponement in December 2015. In order to clear up any doubts and clarify aspects of the project, the company met with representatives of the six companies that have been prequalified. The project has an estimated cost of $180 million.
The current political turmoil is threatening the implementation of important infrastructure projects such as the construction of the State Administrative Center, valued at $200 million.
The resignation of several ministers in Perez Molina's cabinet, including Sergio de la Torre, Economy Minister and Commissioner for competitiveness, Juan Carlos Paiz, both members of the board of the National Agency for the Development Partnerships Economic infrastructure (ANADIE) complicates the near future of planned projects to be developed in the form of public - private partnerships.
Out of a portfolio of seven infrastructure projects estimated at $1.3 billion and which are essential to the economic development of Guatemala, only one is just beginning to see the light.
The project to build the State Administrative Center, estimated at $200 million, is the only one that has started to be implemented since the National Agency for Partnerships for Economic Infrastructure Development (ANADIE) was created in 2013.
A publication by the CAF reviews the development of five projects implemented using the public-private partnership model for infrastructure investment in Latin America.
From the Presentation document by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF):
In recent decades, many Latin American countries have launched public-private partnership projects for the construction, maintenance and operation of public infrastructure.