The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, will support the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to pilot the use of Public Private Partnerships in the health and education sectors. This program envisions the development and delivery of ten early childhood education and primary schools and three imaging and laboratory diagnostic centers.

The development of these pilot projects will receive continued technical advice and financial support from the MIF as part of its program "Promoting Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago". This PPP initiative will be funded as follows: a technical cooperation of US$ 864,000 from the MIF to develop institutional capacity, an enabling environment and governance structure to deliver infrastructure and related services through PPPs; financial support totaling US$ 500,000 from Compete Caribbean; and an additional US$ 450,000 in resources from the Inter-American Development Bank.

The Ministries of Health and Education have formed PPP Execution Teams to assess, design and structure the projects while the PPP Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economy will provide technical support, oversight and manage the overall process. MIF and Compete Caribbean financing will support the development of the business case for each of the pilots to ensure that the proposed projects are economically, financially and socially justified as the best value for money compared to traditional procurement modalities.

The second stage of the PPP project development will involve structuring the pilot transactions and the initiation of a competitive bidding process to select qualified and experience private sector providers. Funding from the IDB and MIF as well as the Government will support technical advisors at this stage

The MIF has been supporting PPPs in Trinidad and Tobago since 2010. With support from the MIF, the Government has established a PPP Unit, adopted a PPP policy and governance structure, identified projects, and invested in initial capacity building. It will provide continued support PPP capacity building within the Government through financing an expert advisor to mentor and advise the PPP Unit and pilot execution teams, applied in-country PPP training for the execution teams for and during all stages of the PPP process, and foundation training in the basic principles and concepts of PPPs.

Source: IADB