WASHINGTON: Despite a drop in investment commitments of USD 6.2 billion last year, India has figured in top five emerging economies for highest investment commitments in private sector, infrastructure sectors, energy, transport and water, according to a World Bank report.
“Our update reveals that the top five countries with the highest investment commitments in 2014 are Brazil, Turkey, Peru, Colombia and India,” said Clive Harris, Practice Manager, Public-Private Partnerships, World Bank Group.
“These five countries together attracted USD 78 billion, representing 73 per cent of the investment commitments in the developing world in 2014,” Harris said.
According to the World Bank, total infrastructure investments in 139 emerging economies – for projects with private participation in the energy, transport and water sectors – rose to USD 107.5 billion in 2014.
This was largely by increasing activity in Brazil, according to an update released to the World Bank Group’s “Private Participation in Infrastructure” database, which also said investment commitments declines in China and India.
Investment commitments in China in 2014 were USD 2.5 billion, its lowest level since 2010.
Investment commitments in India also waned in 2014, dropping to USD 6.2 billion.
Sub-Saharan Africa saw an especially steep fall from USD 9.3 billion in 2013 to USD 2.6 billion in 2014 because of a drop in activity in the energy sector.
However, 2014’s figure was closer to levels seen before 2012, and the emergence of activities in countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal is particularly encouraging, the bank said.
The increase in the global investment commitments total is mainly due to increasing activity in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, which captured USD 69.1 billion – much of which is attributable to investment commitments in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, which together accounted for 55 percent of the global total.
Brazil’s large stake is a continuation of a recent trend: Brazil captured 24 per cent of global investment in 2013 and 42 percent in 2012.
In 2014, Peru saw the completion of 11 deals totaling USD8.1 billion. Eight of the 11 deals were in energy, while the largest project – the Lima Metro Line 2, at USD 5.3 billion – was in the transport sector.
The metro line will stretch 35 kilometers and eventually connect Lima with Callao, including the international airport.
According to the Bank, the energy sector had the largest number of new projects, but the sector with the greatest total of investment commitments was the transport sector, receiving USD 55.3 billion, or 51 per cent of total global investment commitments.
Consistent with the trend in previous years, roads attracted the most investment commitments with USD 28.5 billion in 33 projects, about the same number as in 2013.
Four out of the top five road projects were in Brazil, with the fifth-largest project in Turkey.–PTI
