No. 40. PRIVATE PARTICIPATION IN INFRASTRUCTURE AND AUTOFINANCE (in Greek)

S. Himoniti-Terroviti. 2003. | ISBN: 960-341-046-2

 

This work presents in a comprehensive way the economic literature about the consequences of the private sector’s involvement in infrastructure and the framework of private – public partnerships especially in building and operating transport infrastructure.

Private sector’s involvement in infrastructure has been recently developed as a means of alleviating public Budget or surpassing Budget constraints, while at the same time greater efficiency is targeted. The work investigates the main issues accruing from this involvement of large sunk capital and the terms and conditions under which greater efficiency can be expected. Moreover the problems implied in project contracting are analysed and the particular difficulties in creating competition in cases of almost physical monopolies as is the case in many transport projects. In this framework, several cases of other countries’ experience are presented and conclusions are drawn. These are held as reference points in discussing public – private partnerships in Greece.

Finally, the main terms of the contracts of the three transport projects in Greece realized with private partnership are presented and reviewed in relevance with the general economic environment and the above conclusions from international experience. In this context, the strong monopoly elements of the Athens International Airport combined with rather too optimistic expectations on the demand side are underlined, as well as the uniform rates of tolls in “Attiki Odos”. Furthermore, an effort is made to assess future developments and special difficulties concerning the planned franchising of autoroute projects.