EAP - The Pacific Infrastructure Challenge - World Bank (2006).pdf

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Lack of legal and regulatory support for alternative modes of service provision. For example, in the Solomon Islands, telecommunications services are provided under an exclusive license which does not specifically set rural coverage targets (see Box 7.7). As a result, telecommunications access is largely limited to the Honiara area. 6.4.1 Inefficient Infrastructure Service Provision The naturally higher costs of providing infrastructure services in the Pacific also mean it is particularly important to be as efficient as possible. However, many utilities and other infrastructure service providers in the Pacific demonstrate significant levels of inefficiency. In the water and electricity sectors, Pacific countries have lower labor productivity levels than most comparator countries. With the exception of Vanuatu, Palau and Fiji, Pacific water utilities all have over 10 staff per 100 connections. By comparison, many water companies around the world are able to operate effectively on less than four staff per 100 connections. Pacific electricity utility labor productivity levels are also poor when compared with comparator utilities of similar size and level of performance. Non-revenue water levels are high in Pacific countries. Many water utilities in developing countries are able to achieve levels of between 20 – 30% non revenue water. Of the Pacific countries, Vanuatu performs best with losses of less than 25%. Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Kiribati perform worst with estimated losses of between 40% and 55%. Pacific countries also have high distribution system losses, with many countries’ losses at levels of 15% or more. FSM, Tonga and Samoa’s losses are above 17.5%. Inefficiency is a bottleneck in other infrastructure sectors as well. Pacific ports have lower TEU throughputs per annum than comparators. Operational efficiency is constrained by outdated design and equipment, and this inefficiency is compounded by poor maintenance. 6.4.2 Inappropriate Infrastructure Pricing Given high costs, high prices for infrastructure services may be appropriate in some Pacific countries. Small scale and remoteness contribute to higher infrastructure costs. These translate into higher prices for customers. However, higher infrastructure costs (and therefore prices), can also be caused by inefficient operations. Some infrastructure prices in some Pacific countries are higher than could be expected, even given the challenge of small scale and remoteness. Charges for mobile, internet services and international telephone calls are higher in Pacific than in most comparator countries, including the Caribbean which faces similar disadvantages of scale. Internationally, the trend in mobile and international telecommunications has been for prices to fall significantly with the introduction of competition. This has been the case in the Caribbean. Tonga experienced a similar decrease in prices for mobile calls after introducing a competing operator. This could be a result of inappropriate pricing prior to introducing competition. Alternatively competition may have spurred the mobile companies to operate more efficiently, reducing costs, and therefore pricing. This example suggests that competition could put downward pressure on prices elsewhere in the Pacific too. Average electricity tariffs are high in some Pacific countries such as Tonga, Kiribati and Vanuatu. While fuel costs and small size account for a good part of these higher costs, there appear to be other factors involved. For example, Tonga relies on the same fuel as Vanuatu, has a similar system size and a more favorable topography, and yet charges its customers considerably more. 32
In other infrastructure sectors, prices are too low, and don’t cover the cost of providing service. For example, water tariffs are held below cost in many Pacific countries, and have remained unchanged for many years. Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati have relatively low cost recovery ratios when compared with UNELCO, the water service provided in Vanuatu, which is allowed to recover the full cost of its operations, or the Papua New Guinea Water Board which managed to achieve a total cost recovery ratio of over 100%, including full operating expenses and depreciation. When tariffs are held below cost, operational efficiency and maintenance often suffer. It is perhaps not surprising that Vanuatu and PNG’s water utilities also have the lowest levels of NRW. Pricing too high impedes development by making it more costly to live in and do business in Pacific countries. Pricing too low is also obstructive. This simply masks the actual costs of service provision, and creates a disincentive for good planning, investment and maintenance. Pacific countries demonstrate both of these problems in infrastructure. 33
Page 2 and 3: The Pacific Infrastructure Challeng
Page 4 and 5: Table of Contents 1 Acronyms and Ab
Page 6 and 7: Figure 8.4: Annual Per Capita Inves
Page 8 and 9: Box 7.9: ECTEL - Regulatory Coopera
Page 10 and 11: kWh MDG MIAA MIPA MNOC MOTCA MOU MP
Page 12 and 13: 2 Executive Summary This discussion
Page 14 and 15: Fiscal, regulatory and policy decis
Page 16 and 17: Figure 2.2: Estimated Annual Invest
Page 18 and 19: 3 What’s the Purpose of the Discu
Page 20 and 21: Box 4.2: Improving Infrastructure f
Page 22 and 23: 5 How well are Pacific Countries Pe
Page 24 and 25: Figure 5.1: Access to Electricity 1
Page 26 and 27: Water tariffs are often too low In
Page 28 and 29: Table 6.1 shows that in addition to
Page 30 and 31: These characteristics mean that Pac
Page 32 and 33: 6.2 Challenges to Institutions and
Page 34 and 35: 6.2.2 Demographic Issues in the Reg
Page 36 and 37: These high rural populations mean t
Page 38 and 39: Figure 6.3: Comparison of Defining
Page 42 and 43: 7 Challenge: How do we Lift Perform
Page 44 and 45: 7.1.2 Poor Policy Design and Coordi
Page 46 and 47: different, some efficiency may be g
Page 48 and 49: Figure 7.1: Accountability in Infra
Page 50 and 51: Box 7.3: Expert Panels can Improve
Page 52 and 53: Some of these reforms have already
Page 54 and 55: 7.2.2 Choose an Appropriate Reform
Page 56 and 57: Box 7.5: Public Sector Reforms in t
Page 58 and 59: Pacific countries, management salar
Page 60 and 61: There are three classic types of pr
Page 62 and 63: While private sector involvement ma
Page 64 and 65: Air services would also benefit fro
Page 66 and 67: 7.2.5 Regional Coordination One opt
Page 68 and 69: 8 What’s the Size of the Challeng
Page 72 and 73: Figure 8.5: Mainlines Trend 0.600 N
Page 76 and 77: Figure 8.11: Total Annual Per Capit
Page 78 and 79: 9 How do we meet the Challenge This
Page 80 and 81: Box 9.3: Can private sector involve
Page 82 and 83: Box 9.6: How can the public sector
Page 84 and 85: The proportion of mainline access a
Page 86 and 87: Box A.2: Introducing Telecommunicat
Page 88 and 89: Universal Access Universal access r
Page 90 and 91:
good example of this. The Kiwi Shar
Page 92 and 93:
Figure A.7: Reported Faults per 100
Page 94 and 95:
Table A.1: Institutional Indicators
Page 96 and 97:
and there have been calls to recons
Page 98 and 99:
A.2 Electricity Sector Analysis A s
Page 100 and 101:
Figure A.10: Average Electricity Ta
Page 102 and 103:
Figure A.11: Economies of Scale in
Page 104 and 105:
interest rate relief on a US$9m loa
Page 106 and 107:
As Figure A.14 shows, Vanuatu perfo
Page 108 and 109:
Table A.3: Industry Structure and G
Page 110 and 111:
Regional Cooperation in Electricity
Page 112 and 113:
A.3 Water and Sanitation Sector Ana
Page 114 and 115:
Figure A.17: Availability of Water
Page 116 and 117:
Figure A.20: Staff per 1000 Connect
Page 118 and 119:
including full operating expenses a
Page 120 and 121:
Corporatization is often employed t
Page 122 and 123:
operating costs, collections levels
Page 124 and 125:
Figure A.25: Road Network Density v
Page 126 and 127:
Federated States of Micronesia at b
Page 128 and 129:
In Samoa: Samoa’s Public Works De
Page 130 and 131:
Many Pacific countries already outs
Page 132 and 133:
4. Domestic and Pacific Island serv
Page 134 and 135:
Figure A.31: TEU Throughput Levels
Page 136 and 137:
system reduces cargo handling effic
Page 138 and 139:
Economies of Scale Port operations
Page 140 and 141:
The landlord model is the most comm
Page 142 and 143:
Fiji 84 Ports The Maritime and Port
Page 144 and 145:
Apia Port has become one of the bes
Page 146 and 147:
Kiribati 90 Ports The Kiribati Port
Page 148 and 149:
In Shipping: Services are considere
Page 150 and 151:
Figure A.36: Total Passenger Throug
Page 152 and 153:
Airline Services Figure A.38 illust
Page 154 and 155:
establishment period. For the offic
Page 156 and 157:
Vanuatu 101 Airports Vanuatu Limite
Page 158 and 159:
Samoa 104 The Samoa Airport Authori
Page 160 and 161:
Institutional Arrangements in Aviat
Page 162 and 163:
Summary of Aviation Analysis The Pa
Page 164 and 165:
Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Micr
Page 166 and 167:
Barbados Dominica Grenada Jamaica M
Page 168 and 169:
Samoa Solomon Islands Timor-Leste T
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Samoa Solomon Islands Timor-Leste T
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
“A-Z World Airports Online” www
show all

EAP - The Pacific Infrastructure Challenge - World Bank (2006).pdf

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?