As a founding member of PPIAF in 1999, the United Kingdom government and Department for International Development (DFID), together with the World Bank, Japan, and other European countries, identified the key role the private sector can play to support governments in developing countries as they seek to modernize, rehabilitate, and build new infrastructure, which is required to provide basic services such as clean water, electricity, roads, ports, airports, and better telecommunications to underserved populations. For 11 years DFID, through PPIAF, has been supporting 126 developing countries around the world as they seek to create the policies and legislation required to give confidence to the local and international private sectors to invest in the electricity, water and solid waste, transport, and telecommunications sectors. PPIAF and DFID have been building solid foundations for long-term partnerships between the public and private sectors.

Read more about PPIAF's collaboration with DFID in DFID and PPIAF: Working with the Private Sector [PDF].

British private investment in developing countries is concentrated on telecommunications and energy. This note [PDF] from the Private Participation in Infrastructure Database examines investments by British sponsors from 1990-2010.