Identifying critical risks in public private partnership projects in Singapore

Public private partnership (PPP) procurement was introduced into Singapore in 2003, and 10 PPP projects was successfully completed and have been in operation. The objective of this study is to identify the critical risk factors and risk allocation preferences for PPP projects in Singapore. To achieve this objective, a comprehensive literature review was carried out and 42 risks were identified and grouped into three meta levels, i.e. macro, meso and micro levels. The questionnaire survey produced 48 completed questionnaires from 48 different contractors. The survey results indicated that 23 risk factors had significantly high criticalities and that four macro-level risks, four meso-level risks and two micro-level risks were among the top 10 risk ranking. “Lack of support from government”, “availability of finance” and “construction time delay” were perceived as the top three critical risks. Also, the result implied that micro-level risks had a higher criticality mean score than macro-level and meso-level risks. The findings of this study help both public and private sectors to better understand the risks and their allocation in PPP projects, providing valuable information for organizations that intend to participate in PPP projects in Singapore.