Public-private partnership in the development of infrastructure under the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative

Infrastructure is a fundamental physical asset for a successful functioning economy and society. Its development and investment have emerged as critical economic and public policy issues because the public sector is confronted with the challenges of limited financing capacity and expertise that result in insufficient infrastructure provision. In order to cope with these challenges, the involvement of the private sector stakeholders in the investment, construction, and operation of infrastructure is essential, particularly in emerging economies. The blueprint of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), widely recognised by many countries globally, is to create the circumnavigate route connecting and supporting the economic and social development of the countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. As infrastructure is the fundamental basis of connectivity and collaboration of BRI, it is necessary to link the public and private sector stakeholders to provide infrastructure in the context of the BRI jointly. This study is one of the first scholarly attempts to systematically analyse how the utility of the public-private partnership (PPP) model can be improved to meet the demand of infrastructure provision in the context of the BRI. Its contribution is three-fold. Firstly, it constructs a contextualised and integrated theoretical framework to extend the applicability and explaining capacity of new institutional economics, contract, and principal-agent theories for the infrastructure provision PPP in the context of the BRI. Secondly, it provides an instructive, theoretical and empirical analysis as well as solutions to improve the contractual ability and contract enforceability of the BRI infrastructure PPP from the perspective of benefit and risk-sharing. Last but not least, the thesis provides an in-depth understanding of the infrastructure provision PPP model led by the Chinses stakeholders in the BRI and how it functions as a trigger for motivating international public and private sector stakeholders to develop, invest in and operate infrastructure in a more sustainable and long-term manner, especially in emerging markets. This thesis is organised into four substantive chapters, and each of the chapters investigates one of the critical aspects of the BRI infrastructure PPP, including institutional framework, stakeholder relationship, capital structure and risk management. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are employed to conduct the analysis. Chapter Three demonstrates that the changes of the institution and socio-economic norm lead to the development of PPP governance in infrastructure provision and explores how the public sector can provide an enabling institutional environment for the BRI infrastructure PPP based on the systematic review and comparison of the institutions, policies, and projects from the Chinese domestic angle and BRI angle. Chapter Four scrutinises how private sector stakeholders should collaborate to deliver BRI infrastructure collectively in various scenarios and probes into the feasible strategies to optimise the contractual ability and enforceability of PPP. Chapter Five classifies the asset classes and profiles of the sponsors and summarises the typical capital structures. In addition, it identifies the major determinants of the capital structure design as well as the feasible framework to support the decision-making process of the equity structure and debt level of BRI infrastructure PPP projects in order to assist the alignment of the objectives and interests of different stakeholders. Chapter Six provides a risk management framework that supports the risk identification, assessment, and allocation for BRI infrastructure PPP projects.