Martin Neil Baily & Robert Palter govorita o pomenu infrastrukturnih projektov kot nujnega infrastrukturnega okolja za razvoj ostalih gospodarskih panog. Pri tem pa pravita, da niso nujne samo nove investicije, pač pa je glavni problem tudi v nižji produktivnosti infrastrukture zaradi neusklajenega pristopa k načrtovanju, financiranju in delovanju obstoječe infrastrukture.

“Infrastructure, by the nature of the word,” former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in February 2013, “is basic to the functioning of societies.” And yet infrastructure has arguably been the forgotten economic issue of the twenty-first century. Indeed, failure to make the right infrastructure investments has impaired many countries’ potential to boost economic growth and employment.

Though the debate about infrastructure tends to focus on the need for more money and more creative financing, the real problem is not insufficient investment. Rather, the built environment is deteriorating as a result of a fragmented approach to infrastructure planning, finance, delivery, and operation, which emphasizes cost, asset class, and geographical location.

…

More productive infrastructure could reduce the world’s infrastructure bill by 40%, or $1 trillion annually – savings that could boost economic growth by about 3%, or more than $3 trillion, by 2030. This would facilitate higher infrastructure investment, with an increase equivalent to 1% of GDP translating into an additional 3.4 million jobs in India, 1.5 million in the United States, 1.3 million in Brazil, and 700,000 in Indonesia.

Vir: Martin Neil Baily & Robert Palter, Project Syndicate