The Paris InfraWeek 2021 aims at bringing together the most influential players of the infrastructure investment industry worldwide for an open, thorough dialogue on recent developments and key trends in Infrastructure Finance. They will get a unique opportunity to meet and discuss with representatives of all main European and international institutions active in Infrastructure Finance.
During the three previous Paris InfraWeek editions in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, over 2.000 people from over 30 nationalities registered for one or some of the 25 events. Business contacts will be organised to make participants' stay in Paris for part or for the whole week as fruitful as possible.
Major international institutional investors, fund managers, lenders, arrangers, multilaterals as well as government and EU officials, infrastructure developers, lawyers and financial consultants, academia, and other players of the infrastructure finance community from all around the world, should benefit from the various conferences and workshops, business meetings and other networking opportunities.
Paris has a long history of proven success in infrastructure finance thanks to the presence of some of the most prominent international sponsors, top-ranking banking groups, leading infrastructure funds, a strong community of legal and financial services, and a favourable and innovative regulatory environment. France benefits from a strong local market for infrastructure financing and has been a very active platform for overseas infrastructure investment, in developed as well as emerging areas, particularly Africa. Additionally, Paris has a very specific experience in Green Finance as demonstrated by the succes of its Finance for Tomorrow initiative and the five editions of the Climate Finance Day.
The InfraWeek 2021 aims at organising an open dialogue on all main issues of Infrastructure Finance to contribute to adressing the above-mentioned challenges, through capitalising on the unrivalled expertise of the Paris financial center in arranging and financing infrastructure projects.
As evidenced by the latest McKinsey Global Institute’s Report on « Bridging Global Infrastructure Gaps », the world invests some $2.5 tn a year in the transportation, power, water and telecom systems on which business and populations depend. Yet this amount continues to fall short of the world’s ever-expanding needs, which results in lower economic growth and deprives citizens of essential services. The world needs to invest $3.3 tn annually in economic infrastructure just to meet growth forecasts to 2030, with emerging countries accounting for 60 % of that need. Additional sources indicate that, including social infrastructure and additional investment required to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as much as $9 tn of capital expenditures ought to be engaged yearly by 2025.
There is now a clear need for strengthening expenditures in infrastructure an all regions of the world through a combination of public investment, corporate capex and public-private partneships to meet the needs of the populations for basic infrastructure or more developed services. The key challenge is to improve matching investors with projects on the basis of a better pipeline of bankable projects.
How better identify a pipeline of bankable projects ? How make infrastructure spending more effective ? How identify the impediments that restrict the flow of financing ? How further integrate in bank and insurance regulation the specific nature of the infrastructure asset class ? How bring together public officials, corporates, equity providers, banks and multilaterals to structure, build and finance efficient and vialuable projects ? And finally how finance to-morrow’s infrastructures ? These are some of many questions to be adressed during the InfraWeek 2021.
