International Meeting on PPP and Infrastructure, Brasilia

The Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry – CBIC – hosted CICA’s 59th Board-Council Meeting in Brasilia in April 2015. In the margins of the CICA Board meeting, CBIC organized with the support of the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and in partnership with FIIC and CICA a two days International meeting on Infrastructure and PPP on the 27th and 28th of April.

More than 300 high level Brazilian Government officials, representatives of public and private financial institutions as well as business representatives and the press have shown interest and attended the meeting.

On Monday evening, CICA President Emre Aykar, FIIC’s Vice-President, Gustavo Masi and CBIC President, José Carlos Martins made opening speeches before the awaited address of the Federal Planning Minister, Nelson Barbosa.

Emre Aykar pointed out that “when designed and executed well, PPP can provide efficient infrastructure services where they are most needed” and he hoped that this two days meeting “will cut through misconceptions around PPP and clearly set out how we can tap into the added value they can deliver, with increased needs and opportunities over the globe”.

Gustavo Masi explained that the projects through which the private sector contributes with its expertise to improve the supply of public equipment and services are critical for the growth of countries and companies.

Jose Carlos Martins also insisted on the need to learn from national and international experience to improve the PPP projects and gave the Planning Minister, Nelson Barbosa, a study with key proposals to enhance the PPP legal framework in Brazil.

Nelson Barbosa, stated that the challenging macroeconomic situation that Brazil is facing will not prevent the government to maintain the public investments that are critical to infrastructures. The Minister notably detailed the idea to use targeted credit resources from the Economic and Social Development National Bank (BNDES) to leverage financing of large works through the capital market, issuing specific bonds. After a long period fighting the damages of the global financial crisis, Dilma Roussef administration has clearly signaled with Nelson Barbosa’s speech that the time has come to increase partnership in construction, financing and investment in infrastructure assets.

The event was also the occasion for CICA to meet privately in the VIP room with the Minister, as well as with Dyogo Oliveira, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management.

The Brazilian authorities welcomed positively the creation of a Brazilian hub of the International Specialist Center of Excellence on PPP “Policies, Laws and Institutions” affiliated to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which received its mandate from the other United Nations Commissions. CICA is one of the main promoters of this Center of Excellence.

The International Specialist Centre of Excellence on PPP “Policies, Institutions and Laws” was presented earlier in the day during the first roundtable. Geoffrey Hamilton, Chief of the PPP Programme at the UNECE, was present in Brasilia to represent the UNECE and described the goals of this Center of Excellence. He also insisted on the need to “prioritize zero tolerance against corruption”. Marc Frilet, Managing Partner at Global Construction and Infrastructure and Legal Alliance (GcilA) also described this Centre of Excellence focusing on the methodology and presenting the organization of the Center. A national speaker, Priscila Romano Pinheiro from the Brazilian PPP Intergovernmental Network also took part to this roundtable.

The second roundtable dealt with Dispute Prevention and Resolution in PPP contracts. Christopher Wright from Watt Tieder Hoffat & Fitzgerald Law firm, Julio Cesar Bueno from Pinheiro Neto Law firm and Henrique Frohnknecht, Director of Claims at Hill International discussed the best practices and trends in dispute prevention and resolution in long-term public contracts.

On Tuesday Morning, three speakers pictured the PPP markets at the different levels giving an overview of PPP in Brazil and Turkey, as well as trends in Latin America and worldwide. Bruno Pereira, Partner at Radar PPP, presented the situation of the PPP market in Brazil. CICA President Emre Aykar gave the audience a panorama of the PPP projects in Turkey. Fernando Lago, representative of FIIC and chairman of the CICA working group on PPP presented an overview of PPP projects in Latin America insisting on the fact “PPP is a versatile instrument and its successful application depends on the imagination and expertise of public and private actors involved in each project”. Roger Fiszelson presented the worldwide trends and Jose Carlos Martins facilitated the debates.

Long-term financing markets were also discussed. Long-term funding of infrastructure is crucial according to CICA which recently initiated a working group to develop the reflections on this problematic. This roundtable gathered Vincent Piron, former Strategy and Investor Director at Vinci Concessions, Gaétan Quintard, Head of Project Finance at BNPP Brazil and Dyogo Oliveira, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management. As Vincent Prion said “we need to develop a new granting system and get away from the traditional model”.

The last roundtable aimed at answering the question of Guarantees. Marc Frilet discussed this topic with national speaker Adelaide Motta de Lima, Sate of Bahia Development Agency Head of Project Finance and Carlos Zveibil Neto, Manager Partner at Ponte du Ferro. Henrique Amarante da Costa Pinto, from BNDES facilitated the debates.

After about 14 hours of theoretical presentations, a workshop was organized to dedicate some time to see in details four Brazilian PPP projects and to present opportunities to invest in Brazilian PPP projects.

  • PPP for Public Lightning in the city of “Vitória” (ES), André Gomyde, President, Vitoria Development Company Vitoria ;
  • PPP for Vehicle Parking Facilities for the State of Parana, Elton Augusto dos Anjos, PPP Coordination, General Coordination and Planning State Office
  • PPP for Administrative Centers for the State of Piaui, Viviane Moura Bezerra – PPP Superintendant, State of Piaui
  • PPP for Education in the city of Uberaba, Glauber Faquineli Fernandes, City Secretary of Financing and Projects, Uberaba

Carlos Eduardo Lima Jorge, President of CBIC’s Public Work and Infrastructure Commission was the facilitator of the debate.

Documents to download:

1st roundtable:

2nd roundtable:

3rd roundtable:

4th roundtable: