Paraguay´s Public-Private Alliance Law

By Rodrigo Aguirre, Berkemeyer Attorneys & Counselors

Paraguayan legislature will be analyzing in the coming weeks a draft bill, which seeks to promote investment on public infrastructure. The draft bill is known as the “Public-Private Alliance”.

The main objective of this piece of legislation is to speed up constructions with investment from the private sector. The Paraguayan Ministry of Public Works (Ministerio de Obras Publicas) explained that the law seeks to give the private sector more participation in public works and speed up constructions that are a priority. For example in the current state the Ministry of Public Works takes between 3 to 4 years to construct a road of 60 kilometers between obtaining the investment and going through the
public bid. The proposed law would allow the Ministry of Public Works to start work immediately.

Moreover, the law would regulate and establish the contracts of publicprivate participation and it includes the notion of “private initiatives.” Another novelty of this proposed law is that it allows the use of “trusts” (fideicomisos) by the public sector to promote investments. The law would contemplate the creation of unit name “Projects of Public-Private Participation” which would be directed and coordinated by the Minister of Public Works.

If successful in becoming a law, it would become a useful tool in the development of infrastructure in all of Paraguay.