Government & Infrastructure

nem has provided extensive project management services for many years, most recently by way of specific involvement in infrastructure projects based in the Pacific Islands where it has been called upon to support a range of large scale projects. These projects are usually funded by complex financing structures involving a number of parties such as multi-national development banks (MNDB’s) such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Australian Government, the commercial banking sector and local equity capital providers.

The expertise of the firm is brought together under  “nem Pacific Infrastructure” (“nem PI”) which is comprised of those nem partners with a proven track record of delivering infrastructure projects across both the private and government sectors and under the exacting requirements of MNDB and Government funded projects.

As the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic begin the take hold in earnest, it becomes obvious that the road to recovery will be multi-faceted; involving continued Government support for employees and struggling businesses, targeted industry support for hardest-hit industries such as tourism/hospitality, and longer-term value adding infrastructure projects, which provide both employment and an on-going asset to support continuing economic growth. The Commonwealth and State Governments of Australia are expected to invest over $100 Billion in in new/enhanced infrastructure projects over the next 10 years in areas such as transport, pipelines, telecommunications and airports, to name a few.

The Commonwealth is also acutely aware that its Pacific neighbours are struggling under the weight of ageing and often inadequate infrastructure and in July 2019 launched the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (“AIFFP”). This is a $2B infrastructure initiative to boost Australia’s support for infrastructure development in Pacific countries and Timor-Leste. nem  has been appointed to the panel to provide client-side project management services to AIFFP funded projects.

AIFFP establishes DFAT’s Capital Infrastructure Service Panel

https://www.aiffp.gov.au/news/aiffp-establishes-dfats-capital-infrastructure-service-panel

nem Pacific Infrastructure Experience

nem PI has been active in large scale infrastructure projects over recent years, including:

Coral Sea Cable System Project – a AUD$125M project, majority funded by the Australian Government, to manage the construction of a 4,800 km fibre-optic submarine cable from Sydney to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, including a domestic system within the Solomon Islands. nem PI was a member of the PMU managing the Solomon Islands component of the project as well as a separate appointment to provide specific financial support to the overall Coral Sea project.

Web pages:    

Palau Submarine Cable Project – a USD$23M project, funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), to manage the construction of a 205Km fibre optic cable from a branching unit on the SEA-US cable to the Republic of Palau. nem PI was a member of the ADB appointed PMU to manage the overall project and has since been appointed to financially manage the implementation of a USD$25M project to install a second cable into Palau by the owning entity. 

Web page:

References:

South East Water – Utility Services – an on-going JV project with an annual expenditure of USD$80M to manage all annual new capital and maintenance projects across a user base of 1 million water and sewerage customers. A nem PI Partner was appointed to the management board which was tasked to deliver the annual capital and maintenance service works on-schedule and on-budget, which was achieved.

Other recent projects include 

Samoa Submarine Cable System: http://www.ssccsamoa.com

Vanuatu Submarine Cable System – the only privately-owned system in the Pacific Islands - http://interchange.vu

nem PI is headed up by Gary Ayre, who has over 25 years experience at CEO level in the Pacific Islands in the banking and finance sector as well as being the primary partner on the above infrastructure projects.  Refer to nem Partners on the nem website for additional information: https://www.nem.net.au/partners

nem Pacific Infrastructure Services

nem PI provides the full suite of project management expertise, including but not limited to:

  • Initial project scope/business case/feasibility assessment

  • Project resourcing (internal & external)

  • Initial project design/Gannt Chart design

  • Project Financing/financial modelling

  • Risk assessment/management/reporting

  • Policies & procedure establishment

  • Procurement – sourcing and assessment/contracting

  • Stakeholder management

  • Financial management/payment verification/reporting

  • Contract management

  • Regulatory Management/reporting

  • Project completion/punch list finalisation/sign-off

  • Post Project verification/review

nem PI also provides very specific infrastructure expertise in the following areas:

Project Funding. Through its extensive financial relationships, nem PI has been able to secure funding for infrastructure projects that best suit the specific needs of each project. Funding sources include MNDB’s, AIFFP, local Governments, superannuation funds, commercial lenders and bilateral and trilateral funding consortiums involving Australia, USA and Japan.

Financial Management. nem PI has been specifically appointed as financial manager to a number of infrastructure projects, where its detailed financial modelling, debt procurement, risk management and payment processing expertise is valued.

Network Enhancement. Infrastructure projects normally require a set of specialist technical skills and nem PI is well connected by way of its extensive commercial network of subject matter experts to source the required expertise. This can often result in a consortium styled approach to specific projects which ensures the technical requirements are at the fore of the project.

Infrastructure Sourcing and Procurement. Partners contributing to nem PI are familiar with the need for structure, transparency and probity as well as access to, and relationships with, local and international infrastructure providers.