Private sector development of desalination facilities

摘要

In both advanced and less developed countries, government development and ownership of infrastructure projects is diminishing as budgetary constraints, changes in export credit agency and multilateral development institution policies and increased reliance on free market economics lead to private ownership. Following the structural model that has successfully promoted extensive worldwide development of privately owned and financed power, pipelines and natural resource projects, non-recourse "project financing" can be used to provide significant capital for desalting projects. In addition, private sector projects can increasingly obtain a variety of financial assistance from multilateral development institutions and export credit agencies. These agencies also provide insurance against political risks such as expropriation and inconvertibility of local currency, which is needed to facilitate participation by private financial institutions in infrastructure projects in developing countries. This paper presents the core issues to be confronted for the project financing of a desalination or joint electric power/desalination facility and discusses the project finance programs of various U.S. and foreign export credit agencies.