July 7-14, 2019

In many Asian and African countries, infrastructure is poor and people suffer from daily electricity outages, defective water and sanitation systems, as well as insufficient roads with continuous traffic jams, just to name a few issues. China, on the other hand, suffers from the opposite: ghost cities, empty highways, useless metros, trains, and airports. Dr. Mardini explained to over 200 people from around 10 countries that both problems are the natural consequence of government investment in infrastructure. Public works shifts resources from productive sectors, into sectors that look nice on paper, but are useless for the country. He then explained ways to allow private companies to invest, own, and manage different types of infrastructure projects.