Lifecycle Performance Measurement of Public-Private Partnerships: A Case Study in China’s Water Sector

Abstract

Numerous public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects have been operating in China after nearly 30 years of development. Surprisingly, few lessons and experiences have been drawn from these existing cases, thereby creating an urgent demand for a comprehensive evaluation of their performance. Thus, this paper presents a timely contribution to the assessment of a representative PPP project in China’s water sector, the Chengdu No. 6 Water Plant B Project, from a lifecycle perspective. Through a triangulation method, the project is generally deemed a success providing instructive lessons on the future evolutionary development of PPPs in China despite several imperfections caused by particular historical factors. Moreover, this paper advances the performance measurement of PPPs offering empirical insights to promote the efficacy of conceptual performance measurement frameworks. The outcomes of this research are especially valuable to the current Chinese PPP community where huge opportunities and challenges simultaneously exist.

Toward Life Cycle Sustainability in Infrastructure: The Role of Automation and Robotics in PPP Projects

“…However, while the first one is seen as a necessity that governs the procedures laid out by normative guidelines, it is the cognitive part that decides whether a true partnership is established in the long run, based on a shared vision implemented in a bottom-up manner. In an adequate set-up, PPPs then have the ability to reduce the holistic asset costs over the entire lifetime [26]. Not only does this result in superior project performances compared to other procurement strategies, it can also allow the stakeholders to tolerate temporary cost increases or reduced demand, for instance due to external shocks or changes in consumption patterns.…”

“…Due to the dynamic nature of networks, the actors may be inclined to push costs and risk considerations to later phases, which underlines the importance of sound governance structures from the start [23]. In contrast, a lack of comprehensive PPP regulations beyond guidelines and by-laws is likely to contribute to project struggles [26]. Additional failure factors include the use of outdated forecast methods which in return increase the demand error rate, poor transparency, differences in interests and expectations of the project parties and a lack of clearly defined objectives and stakeholder roles [29].…”

“…Soomro and Zhang [31] add that vague contract descriptions, a weak screening process and consequently the selection of an unsuitable concessionaire endanger the project's VfM. Therefore, an open and transparent process in line with international standards and a competitive market with technologically skilled actors is required [26]. Upon awarding of the contract to a winning consortium, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) is set up as the joint platform for public and private stakeholders to realize the project [32].…”

Sustainable Development, Governance and Performance Measurement in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): A Methodological Proposal

“…Focusing on public value is a way to ponder and then apply some of the sustainable development principles [127]. Despite offering several examples of empirical insights about performance measurement in PPPs [50,128], academic literature has so far fallen short of providing a thorough and systematic theoretical contribution on the issue. The public value theory can bridge this gap-and affect PPP activities accordingly-if PV becomes at last a dominant idea and a new driver for reforms in academic literature on public organizations [129].…”

Public-Private Partnership Decision Making Based on Correlation Coefficients of Single-Valued Neutrosophic Hesitant Fuzzy Sets

“…Public-private partnership (PPP) is a holistic concept of project construction that is used in all aspects of the project life cycle including design, management, construction, financing, operation and management, maintenance, service, and marketing. With the rapid growth of China's economy, PPP has been widely adopted by government in many infrastructure projects, such as flood disaster management (Yang et al, 2018), PPP housing project (Liu et al, 2018a), construction of rental retirement village (Liu et al, 2018b), water sector (Bao et al, 2018), selection of social capital partner (Liu et al, 2018c), expressway (Song et al, 2018), and evaluation of delay causes for build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects (Budayan, 2018). PPP can be defined as a long-term contract based on service outputs where significant risk transfers to the private sector.…”