Markets alone can't finance Asia's infrastructure needs

WHEN we talk of a "long-running farce", it is usually in reference to a theatrical comedy that has broken box office records. But one of the most enduring farces of our time has to do with the more serious issue of public infrastructure.

What can possibly be amusing about mundane things such as transportation networks, power plants, communications or water systems? There is nothing funny about them as such but there is something absurd about the way in which infrastructure financing has been approached. To call it an "act of faith" is to do this approach more than justice. To call it a reckless gamble on the ability of the private sector to deliver literally trillions of dollars of infrastructure, especially in the world's developing and "emerging" economies, is much nearer the mark.

Some five years ago, the Asian Development Bank estimated that the funding required to bring infrastructure in developing Asia up to decent standards was around US$8 trillion by 2020. Now, even ADB officials admit that less than half of this sum will be spent.