Eberhard World Bank advisor

Professor Anton Eberhard, director of the Management Programme in Infrastructure Reform and Regulation at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), has been appointed to the advisory panel of the World Bank's Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF).

Launched in 1999, the PPIAF is a multi-donor technical assistance facility that helps developing countries improve the quality of their infrastructure through private sector involvement.

Eberhard's initial appointment is for three years. He joins a panel that provides expert guidance on strategic issues associated with public-private partnerships in infrastructure in developing countries and on the overall quality and effectiveness of PPIAF's work.

"We have done a lot of work in Africa and Southern Africa, in particular tracking and understanding private investment in infrastructure and the performance of infrastructure regulators - knowledge that I think will be very useful to the PPIAF," says Eberhard. "In the same way, I hope to learn a great deal from the PPIAF's global portfolio."

He added that there are three major challenges that infrastructure industries face internationally: to widen competition, to increase investment to meet growing demand, and transport.