Costa Rica eyes $10bn PPP pipeline
The Costa Rican government is encouraging its PPP unit, the CNC, to work with private sector partners to build, maintain, operate and finance infrastructure under concession contracts or private initiatives to fill a $10bn infrastructure gap, according to the US Embassy in the country’s capital San Jose.
"[Projects] include administrative offices and classrooms (primary, secondary and advanced technical schools) – including design-build-operate-finance contracts for everything except teaching of students. Public housing is another area in which the government is seeking to use the PPP model to construct public buildings," said a statement from the embassy.
Costa Rica has to date completed two large PPP projects and is moving forward on a third. The Caldera toll road and the new airport terminal in Liberia will be followed by the country's largest concessions contract to date: the $957m container port to be constructed, financed and operated for 33 years by APM Terminals at Moin on the Atlantic Coast.
As the new terminal in Moin moves forward, the CNC will also seek proposals for a major upgrade of the trunk-line railroad from the Caribbean port of Limon/Moin to San Jose, according to the embassy.
On an ongoing basis it is also believed to be open to PPP proposals for regional airports and seaports; aquaducts, sewers and water treatment facilities; and solid waste treatment, particularly those incorporating cogeneration, biogas or other green technology.
