Critical success factors for public-private partnerships in infrastructure development

Different types of public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been practiced in worldwide infrastructure development with diverse results and a variety of problems have been encountered. A number of factors combine to determine the success or failure of an infrastructure project in terms of its objectives. There is an urgent need for a workable and efficient procurement protocol for improved practices in future PPP projects. As an important step toward the development of such a protocol, this study identifies, analyzes, and categorizes various critical success factors (CSFs) for PPPs in general based on a public-private win-win principle and a systematic research approach that includes case studies, literature review, and interviews/correspondence with international experts. A CSF package is developed that contains five main CSFs, each including a number of success subfactors (SSFs). Relative significances of these CSFs and SSFs are examined based on the results of a questionnaire survey of international expert opinions. Agreement analysis shows that there is a good agreement in the ranking of these CSFs and SSFs between respondents from the industrial sector and those from the academic sector.