Economic Cooperation

Kooperationspotenziale zwischen Unternehmen besser nutzen ©Uwe Schmidt

Clever cooperation between development policy and business can create win-sin situations and mobilise synergies, thus benefiting all participants.

Development policy has recognised that developing the private sector in developing countries is the key to fighting poverty over the long term. A second insight must now follow: To achieve this goal the business sector's know-how must be applied to a greater degree. The business sector's expertise and potential can play a key role in promoting private sector structures in developing countries.

However, when it comes to actually implementing projects and developing the concepts of entrepreneurial cooperation, partnerships require all sides to work together on an equal footing. Thus as regards development projects with private sector elements it is crucial to involve partners from the business sector at an early stage. The business organisations therefore view companies as initiators and implementers of development cooperation projects. In particular as regards Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) there is still great potential for cooperation, to date exploited only minimally.

Business is working actively to help fetch PPP approaches out of the institutional and financial niche of the ministry responsible for development cooperation. With a share of far less than 0.5% of the budget, "PPP facilities" (recently reformed by the BMZ, now "develoPPP.de") are very poorly funded. Building on municipal experience, PPP approaches are now to be promoted more effectively, also as regards development cooperation - especially in the infrastructure sector, i.e. water, (renewable) energy, climate protection, environmental technology, healthcare, transport and the raw materials sector.

A starting point for this can be found in the agreement on "bilateral PPP funds". In agreement with partner regions it is crucial to provide these funds have with the necessary capital. Bilateral PPP funds have been envisaged in the "Guidelines on Development Cooperation" since 2007, are however put into practice all too rarely.