Infrastructures are not an end in themselves. Rather, they are a means for ensuring the delivery of goods and services that promote prosperity and growth and contribute to quality of life, including the social well-being, health and safety of citizens, and the quality of their environments. The longer-term future performance of OECD economies, and indeed of the global economy, will depend to an important extent on the availability of adequate infrastructures to sustain growth and social development. Through to 2030, annual infrastructure investment requirements for electricity, road and rail transport, telecommunications and water are likely to average around 3.5% of world gross domestic product (GDP).

The longer-term future performance of OECD economies, and of the global economy, will depend to an important extent on the availability of adequate infrastructures to sustain growth and social development. This is a huge challenge for governments and businesses around the globe. Traditional sources of public finance alone will not suffice to meet future infrastructure investment needs. Where will the financing come from? What can governments do to respond to the complex challenges they face? The OECD International Futures Programme completed a two-year project on “Global Infrastructure Needs: Prospects and Implications for Public and Private Actors” which took stock of the challenges and opportunities facing OECD countries and some of the larger developing countries to 2030 in electricity, water, surface transport (rail freight and road), and telecommunications. The main findings and policy recommendations from this project are presented, along with case studies.

This chapter takes a cross-cutting view of the five infrastructure sectors examined in this book – electricity, water, rail freight, urban public transport and road transport. The purpose is to arrive at some broad insights and conclusions on how infrastructure development should be addressed in future. The chapter assesses and draws out implications from the expert chapters on appropriate economic and business models for the successful implementation of infrastructure projects in the future and what role may be played by public and private actors.

Rising electricity demands call for greater investment in electricity supply infrastructure. What are the long-term drivers of and prospects for business models in the construction and operation of electricity infrastructure and the provision of electricity services? This chapter describes electricity industry structure and patterns of ownership and the reasons for differences among countries and regions. It examines the challenges that governments face, including establishing and sustaining competitive markets in electricity supply, pricing network services efficiently, and ensuring security of supply.

The water sector faces serious challenges in both developing and OECD countries. For all water systems there is a growing focus on the best ways to finance and implement improvements in operation and maintenance of systems. How are business models in the sector being affected by the challenges of financing, demand management, scale of water systems, public involvement and equity, competition and climate change? This chapter analyses the evolving dynamics of the water and wastewater sector and discusses policy implications and a range of options for sustainable solutions.

Rail infrastructure serves freight and passenger operators. This chapter focuses on rail freight operations and infrastructure needs and examines the underlying economic and demographic forces which are creating growth pressures. What is the future demand for rail freight and how will demand be met by the public and private sectors? As this chapter discusses, management models and government policies vary greatly.

This chapter provides a review of the operation and funding of urban public transport (UPT) systems and describes the challenges that the sector will have to meet in the future. How can diverse models of public transport systems contribute to urban dynamics? How will UPT be integrated into increasingly multimodal systems? This chapter details how UPT financing, pricing and organisation must be viewed from the more general perspective of urban policy.

World wide, roads are the backbone of the transport network. This chapter describes five main “business models” in the road transport sector, divided along the public-private financing spectrum. It looks at the sustainability of models in light of trends in demand growth, investment and pricing and rationing. Examples of successful and problematic road transport projects are provided. Implications for policy makers are outlined.

At the beginning of the OECD Futures Project on “Global Infrastructure Needs: Prospects and Implications for Public and Private Actors”, a Steering Group was set up to provide overall advice to the OECD Project Team. It was composed of high-ranking experts and decision makers from public and private entities in infrastructure and infrastructure-related sectors that contributed financially to the project. There were four meetings of the Steering Group over the course of the project (June 2005, December 2005, June 2006 and December 2006).