Achieving these productivity gains will not require ground breaking innovation, but
merely the application of established and proven practices from across the globe. The
potential to boost productivity is so large because of failings in addressing inefficiencies
and stagnant productivity in a systematic way. On the whole, countries continue to invest
in poorly conceived projects, take a long time to approve them, miss opportunities to
innovate in how to deliver them, and then don’t make the most of existing assets before
opting to build expensive new capacity.
In many countries, the process of selecting, building, and operating infrastructure—and
the governance systems that could force improvements—has not changed for the better
in decades. In the construction sector, for instance, labor productivity has barely moved
for 20 years in many developed countries despite steady and significant gains in the
productivity of other sectors.