At the inaugural Asia Infrastructure Forum (AIF) in Singapore on 2 October, Infrastructure Asia (IA) entered into five partnerships to deepen collaborations with multilateral development banks (MDBs), and public sector agencies. IA was set up by two Singapore government agencies, Enterprise Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in 2018 to support infrastructure financing and development in the region through early project scoping, best practice sharing, deal brokering, and harnessing Singapore’s infrastructure ecosystem.
Under these partnerships, IA will work with the World Bank Group on a capacity-building program, ‘Growing Infrastructure – Enabling & Structuring for Private Sector Participation in Finance and Innovation’. Specially curated for regional government officials, this program provides a platform for networking and learning opportunities and is meant to build up regional capabilities in the preparation of infrastructure projects for private sector involvement and sourcing for international private sector financing and innovation.
IA will also work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote innovative finance solutions for sustainable infrastructure projects in the ASEAN region. It will help municipal governments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) improve access to financing for such projects.
The three Memorandums of Agreement (MOUs) with regional government agencies are:
An MOU with the Cambodia Ministry of Economy and Finance to collaborate on the preparation and development of the Sewage and Waste Water Treatment Project in Sihanoukville: This will comprise activities for the development of the project, including preliminary technical, financial and risk analyses. Singapore-based professional services will be engaged to complete this risk assessment.
An MOU with PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero) (PT SMI) to collaborate on public-private partnership (PPP) capacity building aimed at enhancing project bankability: IA will establish a platform for knowledge sharing to help accelerate the preparation of Indonesian government infrastructure projects, enabling these projects to secure private financing from international banks and equity investors based in Singapore more quickly.
An MOU with the Philippines’ PPP Center to assist Local Implementing Agencies in the Philippines with the development or implementation of their PPP projects: IA will work with Singapore-based infrastructure players to share knowledge on international practices for the PPP Center’s capacity building and policy formulation activities, including the development of PPP guidelines for areas such as healthcare, water supply and waste management.
In addition, IA will work with established legal service providers based in Singapore to standardize a substantial portion of the project finance loan documents. This would shorten preparation time and enhance transparency, helping parties to achieve financial close faster and would also contribute towards catalyzing a secondary market for infrastructure debt.
(Sources: Infrastructure Asia; Straits Times)
