Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

With expected rise in global population by 2040 to 2 billion people, and a 46 percent increase in populations living in urban settings, the world will require an estimated $94 trillion to meet the infrastructure needs driven by global demand. Wealthier countries have long-impacted emerging and developing country economies through targeted FDI (foreign direct investment) strategies; financed for capacity building of enterprise and public sector projects. According to the World Bank Group, “the number of government-sponsored SIFs [Strategic Investment Funds] has grown rapidly over the past 15 years, opening new opportunities to crowd in private capital to infrastructure PPP [Public-Private Partnership] projects/funds and SME [Small/Medium-Enterprise] funds” (World Bank Group, 2016, p. 24). Though many of these SIFs are owned by public and private sector funds with the sole purpose of fulfilling domestic level policy agendas, others are IIAs (International investment agreements) sponsored by one or several governments in the interest of financing national, regional or global level projects. The talk discusses the capacity building strategies of IIAs involving SWFs (Sovereign Wealth Funds) and other government-owned SIFs, formed for the purpose of funding targeted, country-level, ‘Smart’ sustainable infrastructure and enterprise capacity-building projects through private investment.