‘No boost in infrastructure investments in Pakistan’
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WASHINGTON: Brazil, Turkey, Peru, Colombia and India were among the five top destinations for infrastructure investments in 2014, says a World Bank report released on Wednesday.
Pakistan, however, is not among the countries that received significant investments, though it implemented a total of two energy projects, both in renewable energy: Jhimpir power plant and Sapphire Jhimpir wind farm.
The first is an electricity generation project, contracted at build, own, and operate basis. It will cost $135.4 million and will produce 49.6 MW of electricity when completed. Pakistan will raise the entire amount needed for the project.
The Sapphire Jhimpir wind farm is also for electricity generation, contracted at build, own, and operate basis, with a total cost of $127.7m. It will produce 50 MW of electricity when completed. Pakistan will raise the entire amount for this project as well.
The report notes that private participation in infrastructure (PPI) in Pakistan for renewable energy contracted from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $128m in 2013, with a reduction in new projects from 9 projects in 2012 to 2 projects in 2013.
In 2013, Pakistan received a total of $263.1m of PPI and was 21 on a list of 30 countries.
Total infrastructure investments in 139 emerging economies — for projects with private participation in the energy, transport and water sectors — rose to $107.5bn in 2014.
This was driven largely by increasing activity in Brazil, according to an update released to the World Bank Group’s “Private Participation in Infrastructure” database.
The data, covering the period from 1990 to 2014, reviews more than 6,000 projects across 139 low - and middle-income economies.
“Our update reveals that the top five countries with the highest investment commitments in 2014 are Brazil, Turkey, Peru, Colombia and India,” said Clive Harris, Practice Manager, Public–Private Partnerships, World Bank Group. “These five countries together attracted $78bn, representing 73 per cent of the investment commitments in the developing world in 2014.”
The report attributed the increase in the global investment commitments to increasing activity in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, which captured $69.1bn, mainly in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, which together accounted for 55pc of the global total.
Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2015
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