Newsletter #1

Announcement

We are very pleased to launch the PPP Web Tokyo Conference 2007 very soon. The discussion of the first theme will be starting from this coming Monday, 5 March. During the Web Conference we would like to send you three newsletters, hopefully for your convenience.

Why are we intending to hold the Conference?

PFI Promotion Office belonging to the Cabinet Office of Japan is composed of 9 members from other ministries and various private sectors, such as banking corporation. We are in charge of promoting PFI in Japan.

The aim of this Web Conference is to provide a forum for representatives from industrialized countries to share their experiences about the common issues and challenges arising from their PPP/PFI programme.

What´s going on?

We invited the representatives from the industrialized countries and international organizations to participate the discussion. So far, six countries and international organizations including U.K. France, Australia, World Bank, European Investment Bank expressed participation for the discussion. We are very happy to be able to talk with people from such a variety of areas.

As for the reference for participants, allow us to send you some small questionnaire related to the topics we are discussing. The topics includes such as roles of PPP unit, tendering process, risk management and benchmarking.

A little bit about PPP in Japan

The Japanese PFI programme began in 1999 with the enactment of the PFI Law. Since then nearly 260 projects have been announced or developed under the programme, with more than half now in operation. Around 50 new projects are announced each year.

The market size has grown as well. The project expense has arrived at 1.8 trillion yen. Notably, three forth of 260 projects were executed by local government.

The field of PFI expands every year. PFI was applied to the prison, the embassy, the hospital and the airport in recently.

Since half of the projects have been in operation, it becomes necessary to study the issues that will emerge in the course of operation, especially safety or project monitoring. Additionally, introducing new financing techniques for the PFI business, including project financing, will be expected to improve the financial environment and eventually lead to new financing markets.

For more information, please refer to English website of the PPP/PFI Promotion Office in the Cabinet Office of Japan