OECD urges Costa Rica to use infra PPPs, improve planning

In its 2023 economic outlook for Costa Rica, the OECD recommends the implementation of PPPs to help reduce infrastructure gaps.

The report, available here, identifies large bottlenecks, particularly regarding road transportation, which hinder development and negatively impact competitiveness, productivity and the environment.

“The road network is extensive, but the quality is poor, suffering from years of underspending due to weak governance, planning and execution,” the report said.

Excessive bureaucracy, with eight agencies overseeing infrastructure development, “contributes to duplications, excessive policy fragmentation, lengthy project preparation and delays in project execution.”

Meanwhile, “project preparation and selection could also improve with a more extensive use of careful cost-benefit analysis.”

Well-designed PPPs could alleviate the problem, but a proper solution must include “increasing transparency and accountability by publishing more project information and evaluations online, and improving the capacity of the PPP agency to conduct evaluations,” according to the report.