Emerging-Market Infrastructure Investors

Abstract

After two rounds of General Counsels' Roundtable at Stanford University on the legal paradigm of infrastructure investment in emerging markets, it was agreed that the investment landscape in these emerging markets has been changing rapidly since the last few years of the 1990s. Toward the end of the decade, there were increasing numbers of investments by new players from developing countries i.e., “South-South investment” creating new challenges and opportunities both to host governments and traditional Western players. This article provides an evidence-based analysis confirming support for this trend using data from the World Bank Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) Project Database. The article also tests the hypothesis that public-private co-ownership of infrastructure projects is increasing, and finds support for this phenomenon in the Asian region especially in the power and water sectors but not in the African region. Finally, anecdotally-based observations of the attitudes and behaviors of the new South-South investors are provided, with an emphasis on projects sponsored by Chinese investors.