WELLINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government has published a prototype Infrastructure Pipeline, to show what projects will be delivered by major central government agencies over the next five years, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones said on Thursday.
Developing a long-term and publicly available Infrastructure Pipeline will be a key focus for the new Infrastructure Commission, which is on track to be up and running by the end of the year, Jones said in a statement.
By shining a light on the big capital projects expected over a five-year horizon, the pipeline will not only give industry much needed certainty, but also help inform the Infrastructure Commission's thinking as it develops a 30-year strategy to reverse New Zealand's infrastructure deficit and maximize value for money from the government's 42 billion-NZ dollar (27.6 billion-U.S. dollar) capital spending plan, Jones said.
"The government is the construction industry's biggest client and the new commission will play an important role in coordinating and planning New Zealand's infrastructure investment, to improve the wellbeing of all New Zealanders," he said.
Once fully developed, the Infrastructure Pipeline tool will help give the infrastructure market greater confidence about the timing, sequencing and scale of future credible and committed infrastructure projects, so it can "gear-up capacity and capability to deliver," the minister said.
The prototype currently includes data from five capital-intensive central government agencies: The Ministries of Education and Health, the New Zealand Transport Agency, the New Zealand Defense Force and the Department of Corrections.
"This prototype will allow us to gather feedback on the pipeline's form and function before it expands to involve all central government agencies, local government, and, in time, private sector projects," he added.
