Following on from the perceived success of PPPs / PFIs in the UK and Australia, other jurisdictions around the world from Canada to South Africa have taken to advancing PPPs for the development of public infrastructure. Singapore is one of the latest jurisdictions to jump on the PPP bandwagon and has led the way in South-East Asia in developing PPPs in all sectors, including, sports and leisure, waste and water treatment as well as education/accommodation and defence. The implementation of PPPs in a new jurisdiction is however not without its teething problems. The establishment of a new procurement mindset affects the entire spectrum of industries involved in government procurement; from government itself to builders, operators and facility managers. This presentation will seek to identify the challenges of implementing PPPs in new jurisdictions and explore the paths of least resistance towards establishing PPPs as an effective arm of government procurement. 

THE SPEAKER
Alex Wong is a consultant with Lovells Lee & Lee in Singapore. He is a projects specialist who is making his mark in the Singapore PPP and project finance market and has been named in the Asia Pacific Legal 500 2006/2007 as a practitioner who "specialises in projects work". Alex was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1997 (Middle Temple) and was admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore in 1999. Alex has advised either the government, sponsors or the lenders in all the PPPs and a number of the recent project financings that have come to the Singapore market in the last few years, including the Singapore Institute of Technical Education (Campus West) PPP project – the first PPP in the education sector in Singapore; the National Environment Agency's 5th Waste Incinerator project - the first privately owned and operated waste incineration plant in Singapore, which won the PFI Magazine’s Asia Pacific PPP Deal of the Year 2006 and Project Finance Magazine’s Asia Pacific Utilities Deal of the Year 2006; and the development of Singapore’s National Stadium on a PPP basis - the flagship project under the Singapore government’s PPP initiative.