Private finance initiative: Benefiting from the UK expertise

During the past the decades the British Government has sought to find ways to engage the private sector in the provision of public services. From privatisation throughout to competitive tendering, the UK has been in the centre of a continous process of modernising public services. Pressure on the public finances and the need of keeping high investment levels led to the evolution of Private Finance Initiative. Private Finance Initiative is a partnership formed between the public and private sectors aiming at providing traditional public services using private sector's management skills, expertise and finance. Throughout the development of its PPP/PFI programme the UK has gained valuable experience, it has learnt important lessons and realised significant benefits. A number of countries around the world have been monitoring UK's success and are currently preparing to introduce or they are already developing their own programme. However, the PFI concept is quite complex and its proper adjustment to those countries needs and specificities is essential. There is unrivalled PPP expertise in UK's public and private sectors that foreign countries seek to access. Thus, quite a number a number of foreign delegations visit UK specialists from both sectors in order to learn more about this new multiKlisdplinary environment This report examines the scale, the structure and potential ways of improving this process of exporting PPP/PFI further. It attempts to capture the implicit policy advice that foreign governments receive from the UK experts in order to run a successful PPP programme. There are key drivers of Value for Money and critical success factors that foreign officials need to identify and pay special attention to, in order to avoid potential failures, and thus, realise and take advantage of the benefits and opportunities that the programme offers