Minding Your PPPs in the Middle East
Type
E-journal
Date
3 May 2016
Jurisdiction
Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Taxonomy
General Commercial Law, General Construction Law, Infrastructure Projects
Copyright
LexisNexis
Relevant company
Dentons
Analysis
The use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a financing structure has been spreading across the globe since the late 1980s. In recent years, the trend for financing public infrastructure and utilities this way has reached the Middle East, with the traditionally hydrocarbon-dependent economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries increasingly looking to PPPs as they search for novel ways of financing public projects to satisfy their growing infrastructure needs.
What's All the Fuss About PPPs?
Project finance has been strong across the Middle East for many years, especially in the GCC countries. Power and water projects historically dominate the market but there is increasing interest in new sectors, with renewables, rail, airports and social housing all being mooted as possible areas of growth. Generally speaking the GCC is seen as an attractive prospect for investors due to creditworthy governments with low debt to GDP ratios and considerable foreign reserves.