The World Bank recently cited International Container Terminal Services, Inc’s (ICTSI) port projects in South America, Africa and Europe as examples of successful public-private partnerships.

In a presentation delivered at the Regional Workshop on Public-Private Partnership in Transport held in Riga, Latvia, Michel Audigé, World Bank lead transport specialist in the Infrastructure and Energy Services Department, pointed out the various investments that ICTSI had introduced in Brazil’s Suape Container Terminal (SCT), Madagascar’s Madagascar International Container Terminal (MICT) and Poland’s Baltic Container Terminal (BCT), and how these investments raised operational efficiency at the terminals.

Public-private partnerships are the contractual arrangements between the public sector and the private sector for the private delivery of public infrastructure services (or other basic services).

In his study on SCT and BCT, which ICTSI started operating in 2002 and 2003, respectively, Audigé noted ICTSI’s multimillion dollar investments in container handling equipment, and how these resulted in the growth of TE throughput.

For the Toamasina terminal, Audigé cited the sizeable financial returns that Madagascar is set to benefit from the project in terms of investments and concession fees.

He also noted the reduction of tariff at the terminal, where handling and reception and delivery fees were lowered by 20 and 10 percent, respectively, since ICTSI commenced operations in 2005. The study likewise underlined ICTSI’s commitment to keep a fixed number of local employees at the terminal.