Uruguay infra plans to focus on 'quality rather than quantity'

Uruguay has seven PPP projects in the construction phase, but there are no new initiatives planned despite authorities claiming they want to optimize both public and private funding for infrastructure.

“Besides legal certainty, [investors] will find a State which wants to optimize the usage of public resources, and therefore also optimize those investments that come from the private sector, trying to carry out good quality infrastructure works rather than focus on quantity,” Graciela Soler, general director of the public works ministry’s (MTOP) secretariat, said during the Canada-Latam Infrastructure Forum. 

In 2020, the government opted to ditch the PPP model for new road projects, citing long delays in bidding processes, although it allowed existing projects, involving US$684mn, to continue.

One of these has been finished, while five are under construction and two more have been awarded and are waiting to begin works, documents from MTOP show. 

BNamericas asked whether the ministry planned to modify the PPP framework to use it again on road projects in the future but did not receive answer. 

While Uruguay plans to invest US$870mn in road infrastructure, most of it will be through the CREMA (construction, rehabilitation and maintenance) contracts.

The other two PPPs under construction are a US$71mn school infrastructure contract, and the US$785mn central freight railway. 

Soler said the country wants to boost railways, which were neglected during the 1990s, and said that foreign investors were welcome to participate in the early planning stages. 

She said that private investors could propose corridors linking to the central railway, which connects Montevideo with the town of Paso de los Toros in Tacuarembó department.

For example, an investor could propose a new rail line linking Paso de los Toros with the likewise named capital of Rivera department, near the border with Brazil, and added that the government is planning to launch a call for expressions of interest for a freight corridor between the country’s central region and the capital of Salto department near the Argentine border.