WEF Calls for Knowledge Sea Change to Boost Global Infrastructure Investment

Beefing up access to knowledge about infrastructure among emerging market stakeholders is vital to driving forward investment, which could have a huge impact on the achievement of global growth targets, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in its latest report.

The world has recognized infrastructure creation as a key tool for economic expansion and 80% of fresh investment in this sector needs to happen in emerging markets to ensure global growth targets are met, the report said, citing figures from the World Bank.

“It is equally clear that an acceleration of investment will be difficult indeed without a significant improvement in the knowledge base of individuals in emerging markets to plan, prioritise, procure and deliver investment programmes,” Thomas Maier, chair of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Infrastructure, said in the report, which was published earlier this month.

“Simply put, a step-change is needed in this area for accelerated investment to be realised at scale,” said Maier, who is also the managing director of infrastructure at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development.

The paper classified mechanisms currently available for knowledge support for infrastructure projects into four categories.

Data and content-based products, offered for a fee by multilateral and supranational organizations, gather, analyze, synthesize and disseminate information on infrastructure policies and projects for their users, who are usually government agencies and private investors.

Learning and training-based activities, provided by educational organizations including universities, transfer knowledge to participants such as government officials of developing countries in a more structured manner.

Multilateral development banks, some governments and international organizations provide so-called process-oriented products that include legal framework elaboration and adaptation, project prioritization and project preparation, as well as tendering and implementation support.

Networking-based activities encompass the whole range of small-scale seminars and workshops from those involving just one country to major international conferences that allow knowledge creators and knowledge users to interact.

The WEF report called for easier and more coordinated access to these products because gathering this information can significantly help people involved in infrastructure programs to expedite development.

It suggested this information be provided by a single interactive portal by using online social networking tools. One approach could be to task the Global Infrastructure Hub, which was created by the Group of 20 forum of major economies to pool resources to support public and private investment in quality infrastructure, to bring together existing similar products under an entity that can be tracked and coordinated in working groups.

Contact reporter Fran Wang (fangwang@caixin.com)