A stable and productive society requires adequate infrastructure; the ability to establish and maintain transportation, housing, energy, water, communication, and data infrastructure is essential to a competitive economy. Infrastructure is an essential element of a competitive economy, and the private sector engages in building, operating, and maintaining that competitive environment not just to recover from a disaster, but also through public-private partnership capital projects which maintain, modernize and expand America’s infrastructure. Beyond the physical risk, outdated infrastructure is also subject to other types of risk as well, like demographic risk. If a community includes only one type of industry, it is at risk of total collapse should that industry decline, or move away. Encouraging diversity of industry, particularly among smaller, local employers can help create a more stable economic outlook.
Why does business engage this issue?
There’s a need out there. A 2013 McKinsey report estimated that $57 trillion of global infrastructure investment will be needed in 2013-30 to keep up with the current progression of the global economy. The same report revealed that in the United States alone, the annual cost of road congestion in excess fuel costs and time is $101 billion. Insufficient infrastructure creates friction in the business world, for example, impeding the flow of employees and goods. According to the U.S. Chamber’s Transportation Performance Index (which measures how well our surface, air, and water transportation systems are meeting the nation’s demands), underperformance of the American economy due to inefficiencies in our infrastructure cost the U.S. economy nearly $2 trillion in lost productivity and economic growth in 2008 and 2009.