The main 2022 goals of Guatemala’s PPP promotion agency

Following the approval of its first public-private partnership in 2021, Guatemala’s PPP promotion agency Anadie seeks to strengthen its project portfolio and speed up tendering for at least three other works, in addition to pushing a reform to ease processing. 

“We are at a core moment for the agency, the roles have undoubtedly changed since the approval of the Escuintla-Puerto Quetzal toll highway,” Kevin Rodrigo Valencia, Anadie’s acting executive director, told BNamericas.

“It has given us the opening and the guideline so that once again people trust the agency and realize the potential that it has as a structurer,” he said. 

By law, all PPP projects in Guatemala must be greenlit by congress, an obstacle that has halted planning and approval for several proposals such as the US$80mn toll highway.

The 25-year PPP contract for rehabilitating and operating the Escuintla-Puerto Quetzal road link was awarded in July 2018 to Consorcio Autopistas de Guatemala and then submitted to legislators by Anadie a month after. But the work was only approved last November.

According to Valencia, Anadie is currently advancing toward signing the contract with the winning consortium so works can start during the second half of the year. Estimated construction period is 24 months. 

TENDERS, MORE PROJECTS AND A REFORM

Now that Anadie achieved getting its first PPP project through congress, Anadie has set three new goals, Valencia said. 

The first involves prioritizing and classifying the already-presented projects in the agency’s portfolio so they can move to the tendering and approval stages. The second includes looking for more projects to strengthen the portfolio, some in other sectors and even non-PPP works, and the third involves reform proposals so PPP projects do not fall into bureaucratic and political limbo. 

Priority projects

Anadie introduced in July 2020 six PPPs that total 12bn quetzales (US$1.5bn) for countering the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

These involved the already approved US$80mn Escuintla-Puerto Quetzal highway, the US$120mn modernization of La Aurora international airport, the US$770mn Norte-Sur highway and transportation system for Guatemala City, the US$300mn CA-09 Norte-CA-01 Oriente expressway, or Vía Exprés highway, the US$250mn administrative state center (CAE) building for Guatemala City and the US$40mn Tecún Umán II intermodal logistics port.

Of these proposals, Anadie hopes to prioritize the La Aurora airport project, the CAE building and the Vía Exprés highway, Anadie’s deputy director of structuring and interim contracting, Karla De la Cruz, told BNamericas. 

She said studies for the airport project are already completed with only the pre-qualification of investors missing, which could start during the second half of 2022. 

Meanwhile, investor pre-qualifications have already been completed for the building project and the agency is currently working on additional studies the communications, infrastructure and housing ministry (CIV) requested for the Vía Exprés work.

“These are the projects that have a more advanced status,” she said. 

“We have outlined, based on the portfolio that we have, three projects to be able to continue progress that we are close to being able to have not only the tender but also talk about a prequalification,” Valencia said. 

Besides, De la Cruz mentioned that the agency is also contemplating a monorail that would use an existing metro rail line and would connect the municipalities of Guatemala and Mixco, but the agency is currently mulling different types of technology and reducing its capex.

Expanding the portfolio and reform

At the end of last year, Anadie’s council approved a norm that allows the agency to also prioritize works that will not necessarily require a PPP. This means it can now also work on projects that different public agencies can carry out with public funds.

“The problem the agency had at the time is that we only prioritized projects that were believed to have potential as PPPs,” Valencia said, adding that in case a project does not qualify as a PPP, Anadie can submit all completed studies so state agencies can kick off the project “traditionally.”

Hence, the agency’s second goal for the year will be to expand its portfolio with proposals that do not necessarily contemplate the participation of the private sector. 

Regarding the reform, Valencia acknowledged that congressional approval for PPPs cannot be removed from the constitution. However, the agency can reduce bureaucratic delays so projects can pass faster, in addition to including other sectors such as healthcare, education and water.

“The intention is to make a broad classification [for PPPs under the reform]. I am talking about being able to potentiate the infrastructure in those sectors in which we were not allowed to participate,” he said. 

“Nowadays, we cannot do anything in education, health and water but after the reform, we propose to be able to build infrastructure in these areas, apart from that we try to break the myth that all PPPs are public debt,” Valencia said, adding that, in these new areas, the participation of the private sector would not be contemplated, however. 

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Pictured: Render of Vía Exprés highway/Photo credit: Anadie