IDB report on public-private partnerships puts DR in 16th place of 21 countries. Ancor Suarez, from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, acknowledges that advances in the Dominican Republic due to basing its regulatory processes on best practices in the region bode well for the country. Nevertheless, a recent IDB and The Economist report, Infrascope Index 2019, shows the country has to do much more. The Dominican Republic is ranked in 16th place of the 21 countries that were looked at with regards to public-private partnerships (PPPs).
The DR scored 55 points, placing only above the Bahamas, Paraguay, Argentina, Barbados and Venezuela. The best PPP practices in the region happen in Chile, Colombia, Peru and Jamaica, which all scored between 79 and 76 points, according to the report.
The Infrascope Index is a benchmarking tool that evaluates the capacity of countries to implement sustainable and efficient PPPs in key infrastructure sectors, principally transport, electricity, water and solid waste management. It aims to help policymakers identify the challenges to private-sector participation in infrastructure that, if overcome, could unlock the power of PPPs and support the broader development agenda.
The index rests on five points to evaluate PPPs in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC): the impact of regulations, the institutional framework, the maturity, the investment climate and financing with regard to the possibilities of developing public-private partnerships.
In the Dominican case, the lowest grade involved institutionalism, in which only 11 points were awarded. This category examines the design and the responsibilities of the institutions charged with preparing, awarding and supervising PPPs.
At the present time, the Dominican Republic lacks legislation to regulate this type of partnership, so there is no legal framework, although contracts of this type can be signed.
The Economist noted in the report that there are doubts regarding the interactions that existing government policies could have on concessions in the current legislation on PPPs now in the National Congress. There are also obstacles in the use of money from pension funds, which by the usual norms are only invested in products quoted on the stock market, while in some countries they can be used to finance projects contracted through the PPPs. In the Dominican Republic, the majority of the pension funds are invested in government financial instruments.
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Diario Libre
IADB
Infrascope
20 May 2019