The General Director of Public Investment of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, Martin Francoshighlighted the positive impact of public investment to improve people’s quality of lifeas well as the good rate of execution of public investment in the first months of 2023.
Franks, specified that The General Directorate of Public Investment approved 204 projects in January-February, which represents a growth ten times higher than the same period of the previous year. Is about an accumulated of the year of RD$35,271.9 million.
The economist offered statements to journalists prior to his participation in the International Specialized Forum “PPPs and their Social and Economic Impact in the Dominican Republic”, organized by the General Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships (DGAPP) and the Technological Institute of Santo Dominico (INTEC), with the participation of national and international experts on the subject of public-private partnerships.
At the forum, Francos participated in the panel on “Benefits of the PPP model: Project Planning and Financing”. “Public investment is an important catalyst for economic growth, which is necessary to improve the well-being of people’s lives. Theoretical and empirical studies have underscored the positive relationship between high-quality public infrastructure and the productivity of the entire economy,” Francos said.
He stated that the investment in infrastructure generates direct and indirect jobs and the evidence shows that, on average, generate 25 direct jobs for every million dollars invested and with the indirect ones, this range is estimated between 48 and 99 jobs per million invested.
He explained that the tools available to the Ministry of Economy to evaluate public investment projects are: the General Methodological Guide for the Formulation and Evaluation of Public Investment Projects 2017, the Technical Standards of the National Public Investment System SNIP; and more recently, PPP project Analysis Methodologies, published by the DGAPP.
APPS
“It should be noted that, in accordance with the provisions of article 24 of Law 47-20, all public-private partnership initiatives, whether of public or private origin, must be registered in the National Public Investment System and have with the corresponding SNIP code prior to the phase of the competitive selection process of the successful bidder”, explained Francos.
The general director of Public Investment maintained that PPPs make it possible to expand the supply of infrastructure necessary for the greater provision of public goods and servicessince they are constituted as a means to finance the construction of new infrastructure and readjust existing infrastructure, incorporating innovative responses to public problems.
He indicated that increasing to this extent investment in infrastructure is a major challenge for the regionin a context in which both the economic situation and the fiscal space have suffered a sharp deterioration, and investments in infrastructure have been reduced due to the economic crisis generated by COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“According to an IDB study, in Latin America and the Caribbean, between 2008 and 2018 the average annual public and private investment in the water and sanitation, electricity, transportation, and telecommunications sectors was 1.8% of GDP.Closing the infrastructure gap will force countries to increase investment by more than 70%, from 1.8% of GDP to 3.12%Franks said.
According to Francos, according to the study indicated Dominican Republic needs to invest USD 32,176 million until 2030 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, with the sectors most demanding resources: Generation and Transmission (USD 7,149 million), highways (USD 6,351 million) and sanitation (USD4,922 million).
Of the indicated amount 66% must be allocated to investments for new infrastructure and 34% to investments in maintenance and replacement of assets that reach the end of their useful life and are essential for infrastructure services to be provided with adequate quality standards.
The university professor said that in a PPP contract model, all risks and income flows must be explicitly identified within the contract.
Francos maintained that there are many companies and private investors interested in PPP projects. In this regard, he cited highways and health projects. “The projects that have come through the public-private alliance are heterogeneous,” she said.