The Danish pensions industry has welcomed the government's backing of a number of recommendations to boost public-private partnership investments.

Denmark’s Minister for Business Affairs, Morten Bødskov, has expressed his support for a number of recommendations from the Forum for Public-Private Partnerships, which provided “concrete proposals” to make it easier to enter into PPPs.

Insurance and Pension Denmark (I&P Denmark) believes that this could be the “starting point” for many construction projects in the future.

I&P Denmark deputy director of insurance, Tom Vile Jensen, said: “Minister for Business Affairs Morten Bødskov sends a strong and clear signal that PPP is the way forward. We would like to acknowledge this. Our industry has long recognised that we have too few PPP projects in Denmark, but the new recommendations could be a breakthrough and a starting point for far more PPP.”

Last year, the pensions industry published a review of Danish PPP projects from 2015 onwards involving pension companies. In 13 out of 14 projects, both schedule and budget were met, which the association said is a “big win” for both project users and taxpayers.

The recommendations specify that the requirements for documenting the total economic benefits of switching to a PPP project be made simpler and transparent.

"It would be really helpful if the requirements for documenting the total economic benefits of PPP projects were made simpler and more transparent. It will also help if the recommendations suggest better decision-making processes at the authorities prior to potential PPP projects," Vile Jensen added.

"We would very much like to enter into more projects with the public sector. It benefits both the state and pension savers. There are obvious projects within shipping, climate adaptation, defence and energy projects.”

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