Esther Cheung

Critical Success Factors for PPPs in Infrastructure Developments: Chinese Perspective

With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, the desperate demand for infrastructure developments has created bottlenecks in the countrys sustainable development. Infrastructure investment could not be funded completely by the government alone. Taking Beijing as an example, there will be about 2,400 infrastructure projects to be developed during 2006-2010 with a total investment of over RMB 470 billion, which may impose budgetary pressure on the government. As a result, public-private partnership PPP could be considered as a favorable option to help provide these rapidly demanded public works and services. In order to investigate the potential for adopting PPPs in the Peoples Republic of China, this paper aims to explore the critical success factors CSFs necessary to conduct PPP projects. The views from Chinese experts were collected via an empirical questionnaire survey. The respondents were invited to rate a total of 18 CSFs that contribute to the success of PPP projects as gleaned from the contemporary literature. The results of this survey were analyzed by the factor analysis technique. The findings showed that the 18 CSFs could be grouped into five underlying factors including: Factor 1—stable macroeconomic environment; Factor 2—shared responsibility between public and private sectors; Factor 3—transparent and efficient procurement process; Factor 4—stable political and social environment; and Factor 5—judicious government control. DOI: 10.1061/ASCECO.1943-7862.0000152 CE Database subject headings: China; Infrastructure; Partnerships; Private sector; Procurement. Author keywords: China; Infrastructure; Partnerships; Private sector; Procurement.

Management of construction waste in public housing projects in Hong Kong

Waste management in the building industry in Hong Kong has become a major environmental issue in recent years. Of particular concern is the increasing amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste being dumped at landfill sites. Greater consideration must be given to waste generation and management at the planning stage of a building development to reduce wastage levels. The causes and quantities of building construction waste generated on public housing building sites in Hong Kong have been analysed. Five public housing construction sites were selected for the study by regular site visits. Timber boards used in formwork were the most significant waste type requiring disposal followed by waste derived from wet trades. Waste generation could be significantly reduced by the use of precasting and system formworks. The major causes of wastes were improper preparation and handling, misuse, and incorrect processing. In general, little on-site waste sorting was carried out. Appropriate planning including the preparation of a detailed waste management plan is essential for effective waste minimization. At the construction stage, better house keeping and more vigorous on-site sorting of inert from non-inert materials are necessary. Waste indices calculated from waste monitoring data should be publicized and used for future waste estimations.

Understanding the risks in China's PPP projects: ranking of their probability and consequence

Purpose – Based on the Chinese governments increased public‐private partnership (PPP) experience in the last decade, they have made a lot of efforts to improve the investment environment. This paper hence aims to conduct a more up‐to‐date evaluation of the potential risks in Chinas PPP projects.Design/methodology/approach – As part of a comprehensive research looking at implementing PPP, a two‐round Delphi survey was conducted with experienced practitioners to identify the key risks that could be encountered in Chinas PPP projects. The probability of occurrence and severity of the consequence for the selected risks were derived from the surveys and used to calculate their relative risk significance index score.Findings – The results showed that the top ten risks identified according to their risk significance index score are: governments intervention; poor political decision making; financial risk; governments reliability; market demand change; corruption; subjective evaluation; interest rate change;...

Factors contributing to successful public private partnership projects

Purpose – With the increasing interest in public private partnership (PPP), there is a need to investigate the factors contributing to successful delivery of PPP projects. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of respondents from Hong Kong, Australia and the UK on the importance of 18 such factors.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong and Australia. The survey respondents were asked to rate 18 factors which contribute to delivering successful PPP projects.Findings – The findings from this survey were further compared with the results achieved by a previous researcher in a similar survey conducted in the UK. The comparison showed that amongst the top five success factors ranked by Hong Kong respondents, three were also ranked highly by the Australians and British. These success factors included: “Commitment and responsibility of public and private sectors”; “Strong and good private consortium”; and “Appropriate risk allocation and risk ...

Drivers for Adopting Public Private Partnerships—Empirical Comparison between China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

The private sector has long been involved in delivering public sector projects, whether its role has been as a partner or just as a contractor for the government. Over recent years the interest in adopting public private partnerships (PPPs) has increased internationally. Many research studies have presented positive reasons for the governments and the private sector to welcome this form of procurement, rather than continue adopting the traditional options. This paper aims to explore and compare the key drivers for adopting PPP in China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (referred to as Hong Kong from here onwards). An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted in both of these administrative systems and survey respondents were invited to rate their perceptions on the importance of 15 different drivers identified. Eighty-seven completed survey questionnaires were returned for analysis. The findings indicated that respondents from China rated economy-related drivers higher, whereas Hong Kong ...

Risk Factors of Public-Private Partnership Projects in China: Comparison between the Water, Power, and Transportation Sectors

With the growing economic development experienced in China, there is an urge for more and better public infrastructure. Public-private partnership (PPP) is an innovative method for delivering these facilities and services. However, along with this method there are certain risk factors that exist or are more severe when compared to the traditional delivery method. This paper considers three types of common public projects in China that are often delivered by the PPP method, including water and wastewater, power and energy, and transportation. For each type of project, experienced practitioners in China were asked to rank the severity of 20 risk factors sought from a comprehensive literature review. The top five most severe risk factors for each type of project were considered. Government intervention and public credit were ranked severe for all three types of projects. The findings indicate that the most severe risks are government-related. It appears that the stakeholders have low confidence in the government. These findings have highlighted the severity of risk factors for common types of PPP projects in China. With this information, both public and private parties can be more aware of which risk factors would be the most severe for certain projects. As a result, appropriate precautions can be made to avoid or minimize the likelihood and consequences of these risks. By doing so, PPP projects can be carried out more successfully, and their further use can be encouraged in China. PPP stakeholders from other countries can also use the findings presented in this paper to prevent the occurrence of potential risks. Furthermore, the methodology adopted in this paper can easily be adopted for other countries.

Reasons for implementing public private partnership projects

Purpose – This paper sets out to present the findings of a study to investigate the reasons for implementing Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong (also commonly referred to as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), Australia and the United Kingdom. The survey respondents were asked to rate the importance of nine identified reasons for implementing PPP projects.Findings – The findings of the top three ranks for each respondent group were investigated. Ranked top by the survey respondents in Hong Kong was “Private incentive”. Ranked second by all three groups of survey respondents was “Economic development pressure demanding more facilities”. Third in Hong Kong and first in Australia was “High quality of service required”. The reason “Inefficiency because of public monopoly and lack of competition” was ranked third by the Australian respondents. And finally ranked first and third by the British respondents was “Short...

A comparative study of critical success factors for public private partnerships (PPP) between Mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) necessary for adopting public private partnerships (PPPs) in both Mainland China and Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted with relevant experienced practitioners in Mainland China and Hong Kong.Findings – Both Mainland China and Hong Kong have been keen to deliver more infrastructure service projects through PPP mode, with the former aiming to meet its rapidly growing infrastructure demand and the latter uplifting its efficiency further. The results indicate that Hong Kong does not regard multi‐benefit objectives as importantly as Mainland China. Mainland China on the contrary felt more concerned with an equitable risk sharing mechanism, which is understandable given the problems affecting the financial market in Mainland China.Originality/value – It is anticipated that the results presented in this paper will assist both the public and private sectors to deliver PPP projects more su...

Enhancing value for money in public private partnership projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the measures that enhance value for money (VFM) in public private partnership (PPP) projects from the findings achieved in a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong (also known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) and Australia, and is compared to the results conducted by other researchers in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – Respondents to the questionnaire were asked to rate 18 VFM measures in PPP projects.Findings – The results found that the top five VFM measures ranked by the respondents from Hong Kong included: efficient risk allocation (allocating the risk to the party best able to manage it); output‐based specification; competitive tender; private management skill; and private sector technical innovation. The first and second of these VFM measures were also found to be ranked high by the respondents from Australia and the UK, indicating that these were true for these jurisdictions.Practical implications...

Suitability of procuring large public works by PPP in Hong Kong

Purpose – The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (hereinafter referred to as Hong Kong) is an international leading commercial hub, particularly in Asia. In order to keep up its reputation a number of large public works projects have been considered. Public‐private partnership (PPP) has increasingly been suggested for these projects, but the suitability of using this procurement method in Hong Kong is yet to be studied empirically. The purpose of this paper is to specifically consider whether PPPs should be used to procure public works projects in Hong Kong by studying the attractive and negative factors for adopting PPP.Design/methodology/approach – As part of this study a questionnaire survey was conducted with industrial practitioners. The respondents were requested to rank the importance of 15 attractive factors and 13 negative factors for adopting PPP.Findings – The results found that in general the top attractive factors ranked by respondents from Hong Kong were efficiency related: these includ...