Australia will contribute $3million towards a pilot Public Private Partnership (PPP) Centre in Indonesia to help address the growing infrastructure needs of the APEC region.
The PPP Centre that we will co-fund will make use of the private sector’s expertise to find new ways to facilitate investment and deliver critical infrastructure.
The Centre will help the Indonesian public sector identify and target their infrastructure problem. It will build their expertise in designing and managing Public Private Partnerships to deliver the infrastructure quickly and more affordably.
The pilot Centre will be established in Jakarta and will be supported by an expert panel from APEC member economies, business and development banks.
Australia’s $3 million contribution will be sourced from an existing AusAid Asia Development Bank Trust Fund, which supports infrastructure in Indonesia.
If successful, it could be the first of several PPP centres throughout the region.
Building infrastructure builds economies. More than $8 trillion worth of infrastructure has been identified within the APEC region that needs to be development by 2020 and Australia can play a role in turning this backlog into economic opportunity.
This will provide opportunities for Australia’s education, engineering, construction and finance sectors to help in developing the APEC region.
The infrastructure needs of the APEC economies are simply too large for stretched government budgets to afford on their own. Finding ways to encourage stable private investment will be critical in delivering future projects so that our cities move faster and are more productive.
I want to be known as an infrastructure Prime Minister by building vital projects that Australia needs, including the roads of the 21st century. By addressing the infrastructure needs of our region we can create more opportunities for Australian trade and investment that can help our economy grow even stronger in the years ahead.
8 October 2013