Turin school offers new project finance course

As part of the Executive Education Programme, organised by the Turin School of Local Regulation, a new course, Project finance and regulation of local services and infrastructures: a challenging relationship? is now on offer between 29 June-1 July.

In the last three decades project finance has been widely used to finance capital-intensive investments in transport, environmental, telecommunications and social accommodation infrastructures worldwide. Both the current scarcity of public funds in western countries and the fast-rate growth that characterises emerging countries, can benefit from project finance that is on his way to become a relevant vehicle to meet the world’s investment needs using private sources and public and private ventures.

Estimates indicate that at least US$40 trillion will be needed globally in the next 20 years for urban infrastructure investments alone. Analysing a specific network industry as a sample, the OECD estimates that US$1.3 trillion needs to be invested annually to replace and maintain water infrastructure in developed countries and emerging markets alone.

Investments in local infrastructure and services are indeed a current issue. In fact, when the infrastructure addresses a local public service, a specific attention is required to protect public interest and to achieve a fair allocation of risks while maintaining the project solvency and attracting investors. The question is whether consumers should pay, in terms of general fiscal engagement, and what investors, on their side will ultimately get, in particular from tariffs and fees paid by consumers, balanced with possible equity injections from the public side.

A possible answer to face these current challenges is stakeholders and local regulator’s capacity building, which is strongly needed at regional, metropolitan and urban level.

The short courses available at the Turin School of Local Regulation aim at offering a very interactive and challenging international experience, with case studies and international lecturers.

Deadline for applications is the 27th of May 2015, visit the course website to know more and apply: http://turinschool.eu/eep/projectfinance2015

More questions? Contact the director of the course at Daniele.Russolillo@turinschool.eu