Infrastructure 2007: A Global Perspective offers a comprehensive look at the status of current and planned infrastructure investment and development in a variety of categories in countries worldwide, with a particular focus on the U.S., China, Japan, India, and Europe. The first of its kind, the report discusses the evolving infrastructure market, including private and combination public-private systems for funding, construction, operations and management.

According to Dale Ann Reiss, global director of real estate at Ernst Young, the private sector is going to play a significant role in what she predicts will be a global movement to build and modernize the world's infrastructure.

She is expecting a fundamental shift in the current business model that will change the playing field across the board. "One thing in this report that is crystal clear to a Friedmanian economist like me is that the private sector -- by virtue of both the capital it controls and the skill sets it exhibits -- is going to play an increasingly important role in the effective and efficient development of infrastructure here in the U.S. and abroad over the next 50 years," says Reiss.

"Public-private partnerships are here to stay and may well be the only viable way for governments to reach their infrastructure development goals."

-- via Truckinginfo.com