Opportunities for Infrastructure PPP Projects in Time of COVID-19 - as a Resilience Strategy

Abstract

In December 2019, the pandemic of COVID -19 has hit the world without warning by the unprecedented scale and intensity to be declared officially as a pandemic in March 2020. Consequently, it has forced the countries to follow immediate strategies to alleviate this crisis's impacts. The lockdown and social distance were the most applied precautionary procedures. This situation has devastating consequences for both economic and social life. The construction sector is affected by this temporary paralysis, especially the public-private partnerships (PPP) infrastructure projects with a long-term contract and different stakeholders. Some earlier researches have analyzed the consequences and suggested options to alleviate the negative impacts, but potential positive risks are still spotting. Therefore, there is a need to follow proactive behavior to maximize the potentiality of opportunities. This research is exploring the positive risks for PPP infrastructure projects during COVID 19. This objective has been attained by a literature survey for allocated risks for PPP projects, factors affecting successful PPP projects, and the current practices as a response strategy to COVID -19. The research findings will contribute to building a known base of resilience plans for pandemic through two scenarios of negative and positive impacts to support PPP projects with leading practices. The revealed opportunities have been revealed based on exploring the common concepts between four main areas: 1) Positive Impacts of COVID-19, 2) Principles of resilient infrastructure, 3) Critical success factors of PPP projects, and 4) Current practices to respond to COVID-19. It was found that besides the tremendous burden on project stakeholders, users, the private corporate sector, and the public sector for the short and long term, some opportunities could be attained for PPP infrastructure projects. These revealed opportunities have been summarized as follows: 1) The need for implementing the resilience strategy and long term thinking, 2) Available time for maintenance work and updating operating systems for completed projects, 3) Priority to support and invest in innovative smart infrastructure projects that adopt artificial intelligence and smart systems that reduce human resource interferences and control the social distance, and 4) exploring the need to simplify or remedy the procurement processes of PPP. The concluded opportunities will help investors and public partners react positively during the pandemic and reduce the negative impacts and maximize positive impacts. This attitude will help PPP projects to survive in order to complete successfully after the crisis and integrate resilience into infrastructure projects.