Players analyze infrastructure in the Andean region

The first major GRI Club Infra Andean meeting took place on June 27 and 28 in Lima, Peru. For two days, the conference brought together more than 100 executives and government officials from Peru, Colombia, and Chile, in addition to foreign players seeking opportunities in construction, development, investments, and funding of transportation, power, and sanitation projects in the region.

Infra Andean GRI 2019 also marked the beginning of an intense program of discussions and networking in the Andean countries. In addition, the conference gave continuity to an already consolidated agenda of strategic dialogues that have been held in Lima, Bogotá, and Santiago de Chile in recent years through club meetings attended by representatives of ministries, investment funds, banks, multilateral organizations, specialists, and sponsors.

During the two days of Infra Andean GRI, participants were able to get to know the portfolio of priority projects of Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) for the coming months, and, during the opening session, to listen to Gabriel Quijandria, the Peruvian Ministry of Environment’s vice-minister for Strategic Development of Natural Resources, who spoke about his perspectives on the areas that should be prioritized in the integrated planning of the national infrastructure, such as the vision of State and social and environmental issues.

Among the authorities who presented their ideas for advancing public and private investments in the region were Javier Hervias Concha (MTC), Gabriel Daly (Ministry of the Economy and Finance), Alberto Ñecco (ProInversión), Edgar Patiño (Peru’s National Port Authority), Alex Zimmermann (Cofide), and Miguel Sidia (Metropolitan Municipality of Lima).

Featured discussions

Discussions included topics that are central to the countries of the region, including the advancement of renewable energy generation projects; existing models of Asociaciones Público-Privadas (APPs - or PPPs, Public-Private Partnerships); the adjustments deemed essential for the unblocking of road infrastructure projects, especially regarding the deadlines between bid document publication and bidding, expropriation issues and financial closures; regulatory governance challenges; structuring of water and sanitation projects, and the major expansion projects and port and airport concessions.

In all discussions, financial players pointed out their interest in making progress in different projects of different sizes, emphasizing the complementary role local and international investment banks play. Likewise, aspects considered important for project attractiveness, such as the currency used, scale, these assets’ strategic positioning in the domestic context, local economy stability, and the technical assessment were highlighted.

Best practices

The event was also a platform for the exchange of best practices among the countries of the region - for example, the successful project funding model in Chile; the importance of the role played by the Agencia Nacional de Infraestructura (ANI - Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency) in managing transport industry contracts; Colombia’s entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which brings security to foreign investors, and the Peruvian government’s definition of the PMO (Project Management Officer) as a strategic tool to monitor and guarantee the implementation of priority projects, in addition to alliances between international and local players to overcome the challenges that arise through international experience and knowledge of local particularities.

The conference was attended by executives such as Eduardo Farhat (CDPQ), César Ramírez Lynch (Credicorp Capital), Ives Becerra (Aleatica), Alfredo Solar (Atlas Renewable Energy), Pablo Muñoz Toro (Bancolombia), Javier Ardila (ING Bank), Jorge Ramírez (Crédit Agricole), Antonio Cueto (Graña y Montero), François Deveza (ADP International), Juan José Salmon (LAP Lima Airport Partners), Álvaro Galindo (Tramarsa Group), Mario Macedo (Pattac), Luis Timoteo (Suez), Germán Hurtado (BlackRock), Fabián Videla (Security Bank), Enrique Castillo (Banco Sabadell), and Pedro Ravelo (CAF – Development Bank of Latin America).
 

Infra Andean GRI 2020

In line with the Andean region’s relevance in the international infrastructure investment scenario, GRI Club Infra is preparing to continue strategic dialogues with authorities in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile in 2019. Infra Andean GRI will have its next edition, in 2020, in the city of Bogotá, reinforcing the great appetite and interest for brownfield and greenfield opportunities in the region.