Moving the Small Island States Forward with PPP

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What are Public Private Partnerships?

There is no one widely accepted definition of public-private partnerships (PPP). The PPP Knowledge Lab defines a PPP as "a long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility, and remuneration is linked to performance". PPPs typically do not include service contracts or turnkey construction contracts, which are categorized as public procurement projects, or the privatization of utilities where there is a limited ongoing role for the public sector. For a broader discussion, see PPP Knowledge Lab . An increasing number of countries are enshrining a definition of PPPs in their laws, each tailoring the definition to their institutional and legal particularities.

It is this week where you miss all the strategic meeting for more meeting to deal with strategic implementation issue. Hey, 
After all it is what gets done that gets done. The meeting are becoming... and that is that.
I do think the above definition of PPP is one that need to be well put into practice at the local level, within the small and developing economy, where the population is set under 200,000.
We sometime sit and "dream" that the realities of large economies and mas-population would work for us, but lets us not forget the that after 1 trillion dollars of aid pumped into Africia the development objectives were not realized. (Read Book byDambisa Moyo, title Dead Aid) 
I make this statement to contrast the idea of PPP in the populated markets - whether the markets are bottom of Pyramids (BOP) or emerging markets.
Markets are sustained by people's interest and there needs to be critical mass for a group to be truly considered a market.
While it is true that there is a collective market for the telecommunication service - as it seems that everyone want to be connected, this mass seem be lacking in small and developing island with sub 100,000 working adults.
A PPP arrangement effectively, and based on the above definition is set out to create a public asset or a service.  Being he layman in this subject matter i extend the idea to say that the PPP is set out in the telecommunication sector to create both the public asset and create the service that goes along with the asset.
The reasoning for such is that when a government provided what is consider to be material financial or real estate and tax breaks,etc to any partner, there will be an expectation that something must be shown as "ASSET" on the traditional "public books".
This is where we need to contextualize the topic of PPP verses ( PPP for the small island states)| I can dream all day that what I may need for a PPP is just a well managed service that is always available to the citizens.   
The key objective maybe to open access to a necessary service for citizen/market that the Public Sector would not get right.
The management objectives and stakes are very high for sustaining the venture and again the Public Sector may not be the right match.

What every is the objective, one must note that PPP can and do fail. Several Example in the Caribbean are to be noted.
Largely, we must not believe that everything PPP is meant to be for the true purposes of PPP. 
If the cycles of energy can be traced back to its origin, then the idea of Private Sector lead and public sector benefits would be noticed. However today many of today's small island energy operators are largely running as private firms. 
Nothing is new under the sun. It is only man that changes, and he changes based on the presence of absence of information.
Questions to think about:
  1. Can a critical infrastructural project such as energy engage the PPP model and force the nation into a financial and economical crisis.
  2. Can sustainability from project delivered in PPP, terminate and fail due to lack of markets.
  3. Does cost benefit analysis offer any comfort before Government engage in PPP
  4. The old model - give hotel tax breaks and long term benefit an model to be revisited.
  5. Should a mix model be used for small island state where markets are less than 100,000.
  6. If it is gold mining or an oil resource would a PPP be best ?


Articles to note
https://afraraymond.net/2016/08/18/property-matters-sandals-tobago/
Trends in PPP for Caribbean http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/04/07/three-trends-on-public-private-partnerships-in-the-Caribbean

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