Yongjian Ke

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.

Empirical Study of Risk Assessment and Allocation of Public-Private Partnership Projects in China

Earlier research studies on public-private partnership (PPP) indicated that an objective, reliable, and practical risk assessment model for PPP projects and an equitable risk allocation mechanism among different parties are crucial to the successful implementation of these PPP projects. However, actual empirical research works in this research area are limited. This paper reports the first stage of a research study, which aims to identify and assess the principal risks for the delivery of PPP projects in China and to address their proper risk allocation between the private and public sectors. An empirical questionnaire survey was designed to examine the relative importance of different risk factors and to analyze the allocation of risk factors to different parties in PPP projects. A total of 580 questionnaires were sent out, and a total of 105 valid responses were obtained for data analysis. The Mann-Whitney U test is employed to investigate whether significant difference in perception existed first between the private and public sectors and second between industrial practitioners and academics in China. The empirical findings show that the three most important risk factors for PPP projects in China are (1) government intervention; (2) government corruption; and (3) poor public decision-making processes. These findings reveal that the Chinese government intervention and corruption may be the major obstacles to the success of PPP projects in China. A major cause for these risks may be attributed to inefficient legislative and supervisory systems for PPP projects in China. After conducting the Mann-Whitney U test on the 105 survey respondents, the empirical findings indicate that the perceptions of all 34 risk factors in China between the private and public sectors were not significantly different. Similarly, there were no significant differences between academics and industrial practitioners except that the former perceived the problem of government corruption to be more severe than did the latter. For risk allocation, the empirical results indicate that the public and private sectors were in general consensus with most of the risks identified. The major risks that the public sector preferred to accept are within the systematic risk category, especially political, legal, and social risks. The private sector preferred to retain the principal risks within the specific project risk category, especially construction, operation, and relationship risks, in addition to economic risks within systematic risk category. The remaining risk, environment risk, is preferred to be shared between the two sectors. This research study enables international construction companies to better understand how risks should be assessed and allocated for PPP projects in China. It also assists in risk response planning and control for future PPP projects in China. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000049.

Risk Allocation in Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Projects: Comparative Study

It is important for the public and private sectors to establish effective risk allocation strategies for public-private partnership (PPP) projects in order to achieve a more efficient process of contract negotiation and reduce the occurrence of dispute during the concession period. This paper aims first to identify the preferred risk allocation in PPP projects of mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (referred to as China and Hong Kong from here onward) and then to compare these preferences to those in the U.K. and Greece by a questionnaire survey based on the same risk register. The results in China and Hong Kong show that the public sector preferred to retain most political, legal, and social risks, and share most microlevel risks and force majeure risk; while the majority of mesolevel risks were preferred to be allocated to the private sector. The comparative analyses of risk allocation preference among these four countries/jurisdictions indicate that the public sector in the U.K. was most able to transfer the PPP risks to the private sector, followed by Greece, Hong Kong, and China. Respondents from Greece exhibited the greatest degree of support for the public sector to retain the macrolevel risks. All respondents agreed that private investors should take a more active role in managing the mesolevel risks. Respondents from China and Hong Kong considered that majority of the microlevel risks should be shared equally between the public and private sectors, while respondents from Greece indicated that the private sector should take a more active role in managing the microlevel risks. The comparative study provides international investors a better understanding of risk preferences in different countries/jurisdictions so that they could adjust their strategies according to the specific situation and achieve better value for money in running their PPP projects.

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;...

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 ...

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...

Risk management practice in China's Public-Private Partnership projects

Abstract Project risks were not properly managed in the many past Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in China. Although numerous research studies have been conducted on risk management in Chinas PPP projects, the realization of risk management in Chinas construction industry especially in PPP projects with high risk exposure and complicated contract structure has hitherto not been well studied. This paper therefore attempted to examine the current use of risk management in Chinas PPP projects by an empirical survey. The results indicated that the use of risk management was inadequate; qualitative risk analysis methods were preferred to quantitative and semi-quantitative methods; risk management usage in the execution was found to be much higher than in the planning, conceptual or termination stage; interviewees were unfamiliar with most of the risk identification and assessment tools. All above could be partly due to the project nature, but more fundamentally due to the local industrial culture....

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Critical Risk Factors for PPP Water Projects in China

AbstractDuring the past decades in China, the traditional state monopoly has experienced difficulties in meeting the huge demand for new infrastructure and improvement in service levels, engendering the growth of different forms and degrees of private sector involvement. Since the 1990s, China has started experimenting with the public-private partnership (PPP) delivery method in the water supply sector. However, many problems stemming from unsuccessful risk management have been encountered in PPP applications that have eventually led to project failure. This paper aims to identify and evaluate typical risks associated with PPP projects in the Chinese water supply sector. A literature review, a Delphi survey, and face-to-face interviews were used to achieve these objectives. Finally, a register of 16 critical risk factors (CRFs) of water PPP projects in China was established. The findings revealed that completion risk, inflation, and price change risk have a higher impact on Chinese water PPP projects, whe...

Equitable financial evaluation method for public-private partnership projects

Abstract The feasibility study of a public-private partnership (PPP) project is regarded as one of the critical factors for successful implementation, but unfortunately the common financial evaluation methods currently used only represent the benefits of the private sector. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop an equitable financial evaluation method for PPP projects. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review that examines international practices. An equitable financial evaluation method was then developed taking into account the inherent characteristics of PPP projects using six separate indicators and Monte Carlo simulations. The result for a bridge project in Romania shows that the method combines the viewpoints of all the relevant stakeholders to achieve an equitable financial evaluation of PPP projects.

Risk Misallocation in Public–Private Partnership Projects in China

ABSTRACT This article attempts to compare the preferred and actual risk allocation and then to evaluate the impact of risk misallocation (if any) on project performance. The results show a significantly negative relationship between project performance and risk misallocation. The smaller the degree of risk misallocation was, the more successful the project would be. One group of three risks (including “Corruption,” “Governments intervention,” and “Governments reliability”) and the other group of three risks (including “Approval and permit,” “Immature juristic system,” and “Land acquisition”) were found to contribute considerably to the prediction of project performance. This article provides information on the impact of risk misallocation on project performance in Chinas public–private partnership (PPP) projects. To enter and perform well in Chinas PPP market, private firms should pay particular attention to the identified risks.