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Long-term investment into infrastructure matters, there is a lot of appetite for it, and we
need to make it happen.
Long-term investment in infrastructure means investments in social housing, in transport
infrastructure, in energy grids, in all these things we need to have a good economy and
create jobs for the future.
Investment in infrastructure is a key element both of competitiveness as well as the performance
of our domestic economies. It is natural that we put emphasis on priority infrastructure,
that we focus on environmental investment, that we improve and introduce new technologies,
that we increase integration in terms of bringing different transport systems and others together,
that we expand the use of broadband. All of these things are absolutely common sense clear.
We need to invest in infrastructure to prepare our future, to boost the economy, to create
jobs. But we have a problem that since the crisis it appears that banks are lending less
money.
The current levels of investment in infrastructure are now lower, approximately 15%, than they
were in 2007. So whereas other parts of the western markets such as North America or Japan
have recovered more rapidly than Europe has, Europe has now to catch up.
We need to find ways to get private money also into the system in cooperation with the
European Investment Bank or through all kinds of funds. But to allow this, we need to have
a framework. We need to create European Passport for Funds, for example. We need to find ways
to attract money to convince people that it is safely invested and that they have a return
on investment.
Because it's by nature so long term, it really places a premium on having that right policy
environment, a stable environment. So we talked for example about getting the bank regulatory
system right or the broader system right. We talked about alternative sources of financing
for long-term investment. And then of course we talked about how the public sector can
really work with the private sector.
These are complex investments and you need the skills to understand them. This is one
of the main obstacles. Once you get comfortable and you've got your internal teams and resources,
then you can channel more investment. But of course you don't make that investment in
resources until you are interested in this asset class. And I think that's where the
regulation plays a key role, to facilitate the attractiveness of the asset class and
enable indeed those investments to be made.
There is an increasingly valuable role that capital market institutions can play to complement
the European banking system. And indeed, it is essential that the capital markets should
do so.