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Ten Lessons from Ten Years PPP Experience in Belgium
Author(s) -
Willems Tom,
Verhoest Koen,
Voets Joris,
Coppens Tom,
Dooren Wouter,
den Hurk Martijn
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.12207
Subject(s) - euros , procurement , value for money , general partnership , public–private partnership , value (mathematics) , public sector , business , finance , public infrastructure , public value , public administration , economics , economy , public economics , political science , marketing , computer science , philosophy , machine learning , humanities , law
In 2004 Flanders, the northern region of Belgium launched a range of large public–private partnership (PPP) projects for a total value of 6 billion euros. Ten years later, PPP has become a well‐embedded procurement method for long‐term public infrastructure projects. This article makes a critical ‘round‐up’ of PPP experience in Belgium based on the perspectives of infrastructure professionals who were asked to provide their views on performance‐related issues in PPP projects. Two workshops were held to further enrich the input and ideas. Based on this empirical material this article formulates 10 lessons to improve PPP performance, which is deliberately broadly defined. It argues that the dominant ‘value for money’ evaluations, following strictly financial or commercial logics (in both the private and public sectors), need to be broadened. Given the large impact and cost of large infrastructure projects on society, broader societal and spatial contributions of PPPs are needed.