PPIAF

Once expected to be the signature contract of private participation in infrastructure and for a time its fastest growing form, the brownfield concession was hit hard by the Asian crisis and has never recovered. Because these contracts involve existing, usually dilapidated government assets, brownfield concessions tackled the toughest infrastructure problems in the developing world. But the Asian crisis exposed the fragility of this mechanism, and its sudden unpopularity almost single-handedly crashed the developing world market for private participation in infrastructure. Why was so much expected of brownfield concessions, and what happened to them? Why have they performed so poorly? And what market signals suggest that a recovery in their use is now possible? View full document.