Public-Private Partnership Program: The Chilean Case Lessons learned in 30 years of development

Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) have been an important tool for governments to develop public infrastructure without compromising the government’s budget and increasing public expenditure. Furthermore, PPP Programs have been a tool to, rapidly and efficiently, match the public demand for infrastructure in evolving economies where the government cannot match the development speed and therefore needs the private sector's help and efficiency in project development and execution to support the country's growth. Following this path, Chile, since 1993, has put in motion an ambitious program, which during 30 years of application and error has evolved to become one of the world’s biggest PPPs. This thesis studies the actual state of the Chilean program, with the objective to find its strengths and weaknesses, and extracting the lessons learned by public authorities in 30 years and more than 181 projects. Many of the lessons learned by Chile are important insights for other smaller and newer programs around the world, therefore this thesis aims to provide information and ad databased recommendations for the international PPP environment. Through research to build a complete database of the program and a quantitative analysis, the present study shows how the Chilean program has developed the figure of “Reconcessions” and normalized the permanent participation of the private sector in the maintenance and development of the public infrastructure. Also, the data recovered reveals how the program has become competitive and transparent, supporting with numbers the legal framework and regulations that control the program. Finally, through a statistical study, this work provides insights into the different variables and how their interaction affects one another and the development and equilibrium of the Chilean Public-Private Partnership Program.