Nataliya Pushak

Depuis quelques annees, un certain nombre d'economies emergentes jouent un role croissant dans le financement des infrastructures en Afrique subsaharienne. Globalement, leurs flux de capitaux sont maintenant d'une ampleur comparable a l'aide publique au developpement classique des pays de l'Organisation de cooperation et de developpement economiques (OCDE) ou aux apports financiers des investisseurs prives. Ces bailleurs de fonds non membres de l'OCDE incluent notamment la Chine, l'Inde et les Etats du Golfe, la Chine etant de loin l'acteur le plus important. Malgre l'importance des capitaux chinois affectes aux equipements d'infrastructure en Afrique, on sait relativement peu de choses sur la valeur globale et la destination des financements. Les auteurs de 'Batir des ponts' evaluent l'importance des flux financiers chinois sur la base des donnees d'information publiques tirees d'un large eventail de sources ecrites en chinois. A partir de ces donnees, ils determinent la repartition geographique des ressources, les types d'infrastructure finances, la taille et les conditions de financement des projets et les methodes utilisees pour acheminer les financements. Le role croissant que jouent la Chine et d'autres acteurs non membres de l'OCDE en tant que bailleurs de fonds importants est une tendance encourageante pour l'Afrique compte tenu de l'ampleur des besoins d'infrastructure du continent. Les investissements effectues par ces pays sont sans precedent, tant par leur niveau que par l'envergure des projets concernes. Les nouveaux acteurs et les nouvelles methodes de financement offrent matiere a reflexion pour les emprunteurs comme pour les bailleurs de fonds, anciens ou nouveaux. 'Batir des ponts' resume les problemes lies a cette courbe d'apprentissage, en particulier la necessite pour les pays de se doter des capacites necessaires pour negocier des transactions complexes et novatrices et faire appliquer des normes environnementales et sociales appropriees pour le developpement des investissements.

There is currently a need for the international community to improve its understanding of the new role that China is playing in the development of Africa's infrastructure and its implications for Africa's development. This report seeks to contribute to such an understanding by providing more solid estimates of the overall volume of finance, as well as an analysis of its composition. The report focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa, which is where infrastructure financing needs are particularly critical and where the bulk of the Chinese activity has taken place.

Does private sector participation improve performance in electricity and water distribution? This question has proven deceptively difficult to answer in the context of utilities in developing economies. The authors examine the question of private versus public performance in a natural monopoly setting. They address the shortfalls of earlier research and arrive at fact-based conclusions that are robust globally. Using a data set of more than 1,200 utilities in 71 developing and transition economies - the largest know data set in the area - this study finds that privately operated utilities convincingly outperform state-run ones in operational performance and labor productivity. This book compares the change over time in performance measures for the two groups of utilities and isolates the effect of private sector participation (PSP) from time trends and firm-specific characteristics. It accounts for ex-ante difference between state-owned enterprises that were selected for PSP and those that were not, and corrects for possible bias in the estimations induced by such differences. It distinguishes between full divestitures, partial divestitures, concessions, and lease and management contracts. The study finds no robust evidence of an increase in investment by either the public or private sectors, even if PSP leads to an increase in operational efficiency. Nor is there robust evidence of a change in average residential prices as a result of PSP. Given the well-documented underpricing of utility services in many developing countries, this result may reflect the economic and political difficulties of aligning tariffs with the costs of service provision. This book will be of interest to people involved in sector reform and infrastructure service delivery, in particular in developing countries.