How to Identify Spurious Transportation Public-Private Partnership Projects

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is effective in delivering infrastructure projects. In China, PPP has been widely adopted in project finance ever since the government has permitted private sectors to get involved in the urban infrastructure investment and operation. However, there seems to be many spurious PPP projects emerging in the market, which may bring about losses to the stakeholders and lead PPP away from orderly and standardized development. This paper attempts to address this issue by investigating two infrastructure PPP projects and analyzing the characteristics of genuine and spurious PPP projects. An evaluation framework for PPP is established and then suggestions for better promotion of PPP in developing countries are proposed. Recommendations for mass implementation of PPP and ways of identifying spurious PPP projects are summarized to guide the regulation of infrastructure PPP projects. The paper also provides a reference for project selection and policy-making in the future.