Perception of financial institutions toward financing PFI projects in Hong Kong

Private finance initiative (PFI) has emerged to be a viable strategy for governments to transfer financial risks in public projects to the private sector. It does not only help tap the efficiency and finances of the private sector but it also promises to deliver better public services to the community. Despite these obvious incentives, there is still a low PFI diffusion in Hong Kong. Based on this understanding, we have undertaken this exploratory study, which is probably the first of its kind, to investigate the PFI's financial issues from the perspective of financial suppliers. This study was intended to identify factors that may affect the perception of the supplier side and to explore ways to facilitate their participation in PFI projects. The findings suggest that respondents had low level of understanding and knowledge of the PFI and they perceived that PFI public projects had an average risk and performance. To increase their involvement, several enablers are provided in this paper.