Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

7. Financing transport infrastructure
Infrastructure is often viewed as a public asset, one whose construction, maintenance and operation
is the responsibility of government. Even though this perception is partially justified in
the case of social infrastructure, the economically oriented transport infrastructure examined
here is generally regarded as a mixed asset. 77
Since well-developed transport routes that facilitate economic growth are in the interest of
society, the state should indeed ensure the general conditions necessary for sufficient and safe
logistics operations. The construction, maintenance and operation of roads, railroads, airports,
seaports, and inland ports, however, can be managed completely or partially by private-sector
companies. Privately financed and operated infrastructure will become considerably more important
in the future. After all, the immense outlays required to ensure well-functioning infrastructure
cannot be met with the notoriously limited public funds.
This section will delineate the investment volume that will have to be funded in the next
25 years and the financial sources available for this purpose. Governments will (need to) concentrate
on their core responsibilities in the future and institute usage-dependent financing of
public projects or allocate these to private operators. Partnerships are likely in which the risks
and returns of a project are shared by the state and private investors, giving rise to new opportunities
for the investor. With the increasing variety of investment forms and advantageous
risk-return combinations, investments in infrastructure will continue to gain in importance.
7.1 Investment potential – How much must be financed?
7.1.1 Global investment potential
According to studies by the OECD and the World Bank, $250-350 bn will have to be provided
annually worldwide until 2030 to maintain and expand land transport infrastructure – road and
rail. 78 Investments in roads take up the lion’s share, 78%. Of this sum, $50-70 bn is subject to
intervention on the part of policymakers (fiscal constraints, sustainable development, modal
shifts toward the railroads). Land transport requires widely branching, well-developed networks.
The funding requirements are therefore relatively higher than for air and ship transport,
in which investments concentrate on the construction and operation of airport and seaport
infrastructure. 79 A record sum of $36 bn was invested in airports in 2005. 80 Projecting the
figures from the Asia-Pacific region to the world, this would mean that, until 2015, $30-50 bn
will be required annually for airports and $10-20 bn for container ports. 81 Conclusion: In the
future, up to $420 bn will be available annually for productive use in transport infrastructure.
77 Both principles of public assets – nonrivalry in consumption and nonexclusion – are infringed upon at least to an extent. Rivalry in the consumption of transport
infrastructure is evident in traffic jams on the roads, handling of ships or planes in airports and seaports, and the fact that only one freight train can travel
on a specific line at one time. Users can also be excluded from consumption: tolls and port and airport charges as well as fees for the use of the rails are common
practice.
78 See OECD (2006a), World Bank (2003). The World Bank study only covers the period until 2010 and bases its calculations on average annual world economic
growth of 2.7%. The results harmonize well with those of the OECD study, which forecasts development until 2030.
79 For shipping traffic, the expansion of important canals and inland waterways should be mentioned as exceptions. Global figures are not available here.
80 See Airports Council International (2005). The ICAO estimates that between 2000 and 2010 global expenditure for airport and air navigation services will amount
to more than $300 bn. See ESCAP (2005).
81 Average figures for the so-called ESCAP region from ESCAP (2006) were extrapolated on the basis of the 28% share of the region in the world gross domestic
product (2005, World Bank Statistical Database).
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