The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) is a partnership of over 20 renowned institutions providing custom-designed training in 80 different countries for individuals and organizations working in the field of development.

Dr. Liu, moderator from Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center, opened the conference by welcoming participants and introducing the overall agenda of the seminar. Other participating centers included World Bank, Institute of Financial Training (Vietnam) and Tokyo Development Learning Center (Japan).

Prof. Byungho Oh from KDI School was the first to share the experience of Korea in improving the investment environment.  In his presentation Prof. Oh analyzed Korea’s unsuccessful attempts at transport infrastructure development such as the urban Light Rail Transit (LRT) system and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) highways. As he emphasized the need to learn from these failures, Prof. Oh identified key issues in negotiating with the private sector when planning and implementing future investment projects.

The next speaker was Mr. Koichi Miyake from Japan, Councillor of Overseas Transport Projects at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). He shared the PPP experience in Japan’s ODA projects for transport infrastructure development. He went on to review Japanese experience on fund procurement in the transport infrastructure development. Following up was Dr. Pham Duc Hong’s talk, Director General of Department of Investment in Ministry of Finance of Vietnam. Dr. Hong discussed the challenges and opportunities he encountered while trying to finance for transport infrastructure development in Vietnam.

The last presenter was Dr. Li Chen from China who talked about “Transport Infrastructure Development and Financing—A Shanghai Case.” He spoke of the need for a government to transfer some of its responsibilities to private operators in investment, construction, and management. After the presentations all the participants were invited to ask questions and bring up their own experience in the field, highlighting the interactive nature of this long-distance conference.

By Befekadu Mulatu LIKASA (2011 MPP, Ethiopia)