9
april
2014
infrastructure
investor
NEWS ANALYSIS
Government agency IE Singapore has
joined forces with the Asian Develop-
ment Bank (ADB) to launch the Asia
Infrastructure Centre of Excellence
(AICOE), an initiative aiming to cata-
lyse infrastructure development in Asia.
AICOE will work with governments
in the region to identify their infrastruc-
ture requirements and create bankable
projects with the help of private sector
participation and investment.
The initiative has S$17 billion (€9.8
billion; $13.5 billion) of funding over
three years committed by IE Singapore
and other government agencies, the
ADB and the Canada Department for
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.
In conjunction with the official
launch, it was also announced that
Phillip Crotty had been appointed as
head of AICOE. Crotty was previously
an independent director at the Bank of
India and principal and managing direc-
tor at investment manager New Zealand
Asset Management. He has experience
in public-private partnership (PPP) pro-
ject financing.
A statement said AICOE will support
initiatives in the power generation, waste,
water management and transport sec-
tors and will work with the governments
in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines
and Thailand to discuss greenfield and
brownfield projects. It will also share
experiences of PPPs and policy-making
within the region.
The same statement said that there
is potential for Singapore to play the
role of “the region’s infrastructure hub,
where project development, financing
and execution can take place”.
n
We at
Infrastructure Investor
were greatly
saddened to learn of the recent death of
Jim Flaherty at the age of 64. Canada’s
former Finance Minister had stepped
down from the post about a month
before his passing. Reports attributed
the death to a heart attack although the
cause had not been officially announced
at press time.
Flaherty was our Infrastructure Min-
ister of the Year in 2011, and with good
reason. He was instrumental in establish-
ing public-private partnerships (PPPs)
in Canada, he was at the forefront of
finding ways to get Canadian pension
funds more involved in the domestic
market, he recognised the importance
of urban infrastructure, and he was
increasingly focused on the potential
to develop infrastructure to transport
commodities from the West of Canada
to the East and to the US.
We had the pleasure of meeting
with Flaherty in Ottawa’s Parliament
building for a keynote interview for our
February 2012 issue and found him to
be welcoming and affable with a great
sense of humour – as well as a clearly
undiminished love for ice hockey from
his younger playing days.
It was with a mischievous smile that
he said – in the wake of the Crisis – the
country needed to focus on building
economic infrastructure rather than
“more hockey rinks”. The smile perhaps
indicated that he for one would never
underestimate the value to the commu-
nity of a hockey rink.
n
The republic has appointed a head for its new infrastructure Centre of Excellence
Jim Flaherty, Canada’s former Finance Minister, contributed much to the
development of infrastructure in the country
Singapore stakes claim as Asia’s ‘hub’
The passing of a visionary
p o l i c y
i n
m e m o r y
Singapore
: wants to kick-start investment
Jim Flaherty with our Minister of the
Year award, 2011
