Decoding Eastern European National Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Programs

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure programs have featured as a recipe for the socio-economic development of developing countries. However, despite the overall trend to strengthen PPP programs in developing economies, national PPP programs are developed heterogeneously even among neighboring countries. To identify development patterns that may explain the heterogeneous performance of national PPP programs, this paper will analyze the PPP programs of Eastern European countries based on the projects procured so far. To do so, the information on 430 PPP projects procured in 13 countries was retrieved to conduct analysis at regional and country levels. Findings indicate that Southeastern Europe leads in both the number of PPP projects and total investment, driven by airports and ICT projects. In contrast, the Caucasus states and post-Soviet European republics exhibit lower levels of activity and investment, which may reflect varying regional priorities and economic scales. The implications of these findings are significant, highlighting the need for enhanced institutional capacity, transparent and fair project evaluation processes, and alignment of PPP projects with national development objectives to ensure sustainable and effective infrastructure development.