Public-Private Partnerships for the Provision of Port Infrastructure: An Explorative Multi-Actor Perspective on Critical Success Factors1

Public-private cooperation on the level of project finance, and provision of large-scale infrastructure projects, is increasing on the global level. This paper uses a multi-actor analysis, in order to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) for sound implementation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the port context, and to determine the diverging opinions of stakeholders with regard to the importance of these CSFs. The results indicate that eight CSFs are of superior importance in port PPPs: the concreteness and preciseness of the concession agreement, the ability to appropriately allocate and share risk, the technical feasibility of the project, the commitment made by partners, the attractiveness of the financial package, a clear definition of responsibilities, the presence of a strong private consortium and a realistic cost/benefit assessment. The reason for their importance is their deal-breaking character, which can lead to a total failure of PPP projects during the early stages of project conception.