Towards new ways of governing Public-Private Partnerships in Public Infrastructure

Public-private partnerships play a key role in the construction and management of public infrastructure all over the world, with many countries following the UK’s example by using Design, Build, Finance, Maintenance and Operation (DBFMO) contracts: long-term contracts that fully outsource the various project phases to a private consortium. These smart DBFM(O) contracts strive to combine the strengths of government and the market in order to cope with increasingly large and complex public projects. In practice, however, things are more complicated, with partnerships sometimes resulting in failures and disputes. Recently, a number of public and private parties in the Netherlands have taken the initiative to develop what they called ‘a new market vision’, with new ideas on how public- private partnerships should be implemented and governed. According to this new vision, relational aspects of partnerships and cooperation, such as attitude, openness, trust and relationship management, are key.