Three clocks for one project: the reform that seeks to shorten Public-Private Partnership projects from years to months

The Government proposes to amend Law 47-20 to reduce the evaluation, bidding, and awarding times for PPPs, create a fund to prepare projects, and expand the possibilities of leveraging public assets with private investment

SANTO DOMINGO– Before a machine even starts up, an infrastructure project can go through studies, evaluations, financial structuring, authorizations, calls for bids, consultations, modifications, competition between bidders, and finally, the awarding of the contract.

Along that journey there are at least three clocks that tick simultaneously: the State's clock, which measures how long the procedure takes; the capital's clock, which waits while the project reaches the conditions to receive investment; and the clock of the work itself, which starts counting when it can finally move from the file to the ground.

This is precisely the timeframe that the Executive Branch wants to modify with the draft of a new General Law on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), submitted to the Senate on August 27, to reduce the evaluation, bidding and awarding processes to between 10 and 18 months, which currently can take between 24 and 76 months.

The DGAPP offers a more specific explanation: for less complex projects, the time until award would be reduced from the current 24 to 36 months to between 10 and 18 months, while certain bidding processes could be reduced from approximately 12 months to four or six.

It's not just about removing months from the calendar; the reform proposes modifying the way projects are prepared before they compete for a contractor.

Among the proposals is the express recognition of the General Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships (DGAPP) as having the authority to structure projects from early stages and to create a Specialized Fund to finance pre-investment, pre-feasibility, feasibility, and technical, legal, and financial structuring studies. The fund would be repayable by the winning bidder.

The initiative also incorporates a public asset optimization mechanism to identify state assets, infrastructure, spaces, or capabilities that can be rehabilitated, modernized, or utilized through private investment. The DGAPP also notes that the procedure would be simplified when there is only one bidder.

The proposal is only now beginning its legislative process, having been submitted to the Senate in August, and must be sent to committee for study and discussion. Therefore, its timeline is still a proposed regulation, not an operational reality.

Tick ​​tock, tick tock

The debate about the timeframe for PPPs is not starting from scratch. Since the enactment of Law 47-20, various projects have allowed us to observe how long the transition between an initiative and its subsequent stages can take.

El Inmobiliario has followed some of these cases, and not all of them are the same in nature or followed exactly the same procedure, and that difference is important. But together they allow us to look at the timeline of projects that have required private investment, public infrastructure, competitive processes, or partnership mechanisms.

The project clock

Quick reference for the main dates and stages of projects linked to the PPP scheme or infrastructure processes followed by El Inmobiliario. (Source: General Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships – DGAPP)

Note: Amber appears in the chart because it allows observation of the evolution of a project originally structured as a PPP, but the July 2026 award corresponded to a national public tender under Law 340-06. That award should not be attributed to Law 47-20.

The painting provides initial evidence: the timeline for an infrastructure project does not begin on the day the first stone is laid.

In Ámbar, for example, almost six years passed between the presidential announcement in August 2020 and the awarding of the design and construction contract in July 2026. But that fact should be interpreted with caution: during that period the project went through different mechanisms and processes, and the procedure that culminated in the 2026 award was not the same PPP scheme announced and promoted in 2023.

That nuance does not detract from the case; on the contrary, it shows why it is necessary to separate the stages of a work and know exactly which clock is being measured.

Arroyo Barril: from file to contract

Arroyo Barril offers a different kind of reference. The government awarded the project on March 2, 2023, and seven months later, on September 10, formalized the PPP contract to transform Puerto Duarte, in Samaná, into a cruise terminal and tourist facility.

The project includes the rehabilitation and construction of infrastructure with the capacity to receive four cruise ships simultaneously.

In February 2024, the DGAPP presented it as the first contract signed and the first infrastructure project awarded under the APP model, and announced the start of its execution.

The DGAPP project bank currently lists it as a “Contract in progress.” This status distinguishes it from initiatives that remain under evaluation or have been discarded.

Here, the timeline differs from that of Ámbar: awarding, contracting, and the announced move toward implementation all occurred within a much shorter period. This also cautions against overly simplistic conclusions: not all PPP projects last the same amount of time, nor do all stages take the same amount of time.

When the clock changes its mechanism

The Amber Highway project is longer and more complex. President Luis Abinader announced the project in 2020; in May 2023, the DGAPP (General Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships) opened the expression of interest process within a public-private partnership (PPP) structure and estimated an investment of US$400 million.

A month later, he conducted an international roadshow to present the project to companies and investors, with a financial model that incorporated the operation and maintenance of the Northern Ring Road of Santiago and a state contribution of land linked to the Punta Bergantín real estate development project.

In February 2024, the DGAPP still listed it alongside Arroyo Barril among the first infrastructure PPPs ready to begin execution that year. However, the process that finally moved forward in 2025 and 2026 was a national public tender for the design and construction of the highway.

That procedure involved schedule modifications, extensions, and requests from interested companies to extend deadlines.

The contract was awarded in July 2026 for RD$28.8 billion, so this case isn't simply a case of a public-private partnership (PPP) taking six years to be awarded. It illustrates how an infrastructure project can go through various institutional stages and contracting mechanisms before reaching an effective award, and that's where the issue of time comes into play again.

Capital also looks at the calendar

For an investor, time is not an isolated administrative figure, but rather it forms part of the project evaluation, along with its profitability, risks, financing, market and regulatory framework.

During the Metro Seguro “Connecting Investments” forum, economist Francisco Tavárez suggested that public-private partnerships (PPPs) can attract private investment to real estate initiatives, infrastructure, and other projects. He also pointed out the need to reduce transaction costs associated with structuring and executing projects and to streamline processes.

Haivanjoe Ng Cortiñas brought another element to the table: legal certainty does not depend solely on the existence of laws. The economist differentiated between the legal framework and its effective application, arguing that institutional progress requires that the rules be followed.

He also suggested that investors already in the country should find conditions to remain, expand their operations, and reinvest.

In a statement published by El Inmobiliario on October 6, Ng Cortiñas summarized it more directly: “The country is advancing institutionally not only because it has a solid legal structure, but because that structure is truly effective.”.

The observation is relevant to a PPP reform, because reducing the time of a procedure may be relevant to an investor, but time alone does not constitute legal certainty.

Certainty also depends on the rules being clear, being followed, and being able to be applied effectively, as the economist pointed out.

The third clock: when does a work really begin?

For the construction sector and for real estate development, there is a difference between a project being announced, existing in a file, having a financial structure, being awarded, and finally entering construction.

Furthermore, infrastructure can modify the surrounding territory, as can be seen in the model proposed for Ámbar, which linked the road with the North Ring Road and Punta Bergantín, the tourist and real estate development currently underway in Montellano.

In August 2026, El Inmobiliario reported that the first stage of Punta Bergantín includes four hotels and a projected investment of over US$400 million, in an area of ​​approximately 10 million square meters.

The relationship between infrastructure and real estate development, however, should not be mistaken for automatic causality. A road does not, in itself, guarantee that new projects will emerge, nor does a public-private partnership (PPP) guarantee that an investment will materialize.

What can be observed is that the public and private projects themselves are conceived, in some cases, as connected pieces within a territorial strategy, and that explains why time matters, beyond the administrative file.

A road that takes years to go from announcement to contracting doesn't just have an institutional timeline. It also has a timeline for those planning hotels, housing, shops, logistics centers, offices, or services around that infrastructure.

But how much that time influences each specific investment will depend on the project and its own financial and market conditions.

The reform attempts to intervene earlier

The proposed reform to the General Law of Public-Private Partnerships reaches the Senate with a specific objective: to reduce the time that elapses between the evaluation of an initiative and the awarding of a project.

The DGAPP maintains that less complex processes can go from periods of between 24 and 36 months to between 10 and 18 months, while certain bidding processes could be reduced from about 12 months to between four and six.

The reform also incorporates mechanisms to finance project preparation, grants the DGAPP greater powers to intervene from the early stages of structuring, and establishes specific procedures for certain contracting scenarios.

But the project still has to go through the legislative process. Its proposed timeline is, for now, a provision contained in a bill, not a confirmed outcome.

The real change will be measurable when the projects that are submitted to the new framework go through these stages and allow a comparison of the planned deadlines with those actually used.

Recommended readings:

• Public-private partnerships are key to maintaining investment, says economist Francisco Tavárez
• The Colonial City would enter 2027 with a US$130 million loan from the IDB included in the Budget, without closing the US$90 million loan currently underway
• Ng Cortiñas: Legal certainty is measured by compliance with the laws, not by their existence