Public private partnership (PPP) is now a truly global phenomenon that has spread across continents and through developed and transitional economies. Political and economic factors are forcing governments across the world to look outside the public sector for new and more efficient ways of providing public assets and services. With the suitability of the classic privatisation model not politically viable in many nations, PPP is increasingly seen as the best way of levering private sector finance and expertise into the public arena.
With an established and mature PPP industry, the UK has become the main intellectual powerhouse behind this process. During the past decade, successive UK administrations have used PPP as a means of securing off-balance sheet finance, additional investment and greater efficiency across the full spectrum of public services. In the early 1990s, this approach was exploratory, but from this period of problem solving sprang the definitive private finance initiative (PFI) model, in which a private sector company assumes the risk for design, build, finance and operation (DBFO) of facilities or service provision.
