Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
CG/LA releases the Top 50 Infrastructure Projects of the Americas
8° Annual Latin American Leadership Forum
“Building Innovation & Opportunity Across The Americas”
Washington, DC – March 23, 2010 – CG/LA Infrastructure LLC, the world leader in strategic infrastructure project identification and development, announced the release of its Top 50 Infrastructure Projects in Latin America 2010. The total estimated value of the projects is US$68 billion, equivalent to almost 2% of Latin American GDP, and with the potential to create over 1 million new jobs in the region. The list was released ahead of the 8th Annual Latin American Leadership Forum (LALF8), which will take place in Bogotá, Colombia, April 21-23.
According to Norman F. Anderson, President & CEO of CG/LA, these projects are critical to Latin America’s future: “The region is moving towards a public leadership model of infrastructure investment, with very dynamic participation from the private sector – increasingly we see improved performance from the public sector, which is creating much higher levels of private sector participation.” Under this new model, sectors that should particularly benefit include mass transit (both urban and interurban), as well as water & wastewater.
Strategic Infrastructure Projects: World-class projects are drawn from eight infrastructure sectors, including the top 5 projects in ports & logistics, oil & gas, water & wastewater, electricity generation, urban mass transit, surface transportation, and renewable energy. Projects represent 12 countries, and include Rio’s 2016 Olympics infrastructure investment (US$14b); Colombia’s Ruta del Sol Section 3 (US$2.5b); Mexico’s Water Efficiency Investment Program (US$2b); Panama’s Metro (US$1b); and Peru’s Santa Maria Desalination Plant (US$160m). A disaster relief workshop will highlight innovations that will benefit Chile and Haiti as they rebuild infrastructure affected by recent earthquakes.
Regional Leadership: President Alvaro Uribe will deliver the luncheon keynote address on April 22nd at the 8th Annual Latin American Leadership Forum, addressing an audience of 500+ global infrastructure leaders community, including executives from finance, policy, engineering/construction, equipment and technology. Top executives participating from the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Export Development Canada (EDC), Madrid Network, Scotia Capital – and others from more than 30 countries – are driving to double the level of infrastructure investment in the region.
The Future is Now! Each year the Americas come together at the Leadership Forum, in a different city, to prioritize, structure and finance critical projects. The Top 50 projects are presented this year in Bogota under the banner of “Building Innovation & Opportunity Across The Americas.”
Sponsors for the 8° Annual Latin American Leadership Forum include: Platinum Sponsors CAF (Andean Development Bank), IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), the Madrid Network for Economic Development, and Scotia Capital. Gold Sponsors: Aggreko, Banco de Córdoba, Banco Davivienda, Caja Madrid, Camp Dresser McKee, CEPM, Citi, CH2M Hill, Corficolombiana, CSA Group, EGE Haina, ESRI, Export Development Canada, Grupo Bancolombia, IE Singapore, PanProjects, PISA, ProMéxico, SNC Lavalin Construction, and TBS Shipping. Colombia’s National Department of Planning (DNP) is the anchor Leadership Forum sponsor.
CG/LA Infrastructure LLC, based in Washington D.C., focuses on creating opportunity in the global infrastructure marketplace by assisting countries, regions, and companies to become increasingly competitive in areas of strategic advantage.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Charting a Course for a National Infrastructure Revival
As the United States struggles to rouse itself from its economic slumber, the country is beginning to keenly feel the need to lay down a foundation for a new and vibrant economy. A concerted effort to modernize our infrastructure must top any checklist for recovery. The backbone of our economic system has suffered from years of neglect – budgetary, conceptual, institutional. With his recent request for $4 billion to create a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, it’s encouraging that President Obama seems to understand how essential an infrastructure revival is to our prosperity.
But such a fund is not nearly enough to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century. And simply devoting money to projects will not lead to results unless we have a clear strategy for revitalizing and reinventing our roads, bridges, railroads, mass transit, and other structures and systems essential to sustaining productivity.
To put it plainly, our current infrastructure model is exhausted. We currently invest 1.3 percent of GDP in infrastructure; in 1980, we invested over three percent. Worse, we are investing in the wrong kind of infrastructure. Right now, we are barely covering replacement costs for a system designed 50 years ago — and which now badly needs updating just to keep up with the rest of the world.
For our country to be globally competitive, we will need to nearly triple our level of infrastructure investment each year over the next 10 years, from the current $150 billion level to at least $400 billion per year. And we will need to think differently about infrastructure, designing projects and promoting firms that are carbon neutral, highly innovative, and transformative.
These goals will require a fundamental shift in orientation and a new framework for the future. We must focus on five critical gaps that must be filled if we are to revitalize the country’s infrastructure and jumpstart the economy: a broad consensus vision, an uncompromising competitiveness agenda, a long-term funding source, a high-functioning public sector, and a bold perspective on the design and aesthetics of infrastructure projects.
