Secretary Antony J. Blinken at the U.S. Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment Investor Forum

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Amos, thank you.  And Ajay, Janet, wonderful to be with you, but especially to be with everyone around this table.  I’m looking around at this lineup, and not since the 1927 New York Yankees have I seen a more impressive group, so – (laughter).  I won’t talk about the current New York Yankees.

So as you all know very well and as we’re all going around the world in different ways, we know that there is an almost insatiable demand for high-quality infrastructure.  This is what I hear everywhere I go.  And by high-quality, we mean not only the physical quality of the infrastructure that’s built but the way it’s done, the standards when it comes to workers, when it comes to the environment, the imperative of not piling debt upon debt on countries that can’t afford it, et cetera.

And the initiative that Amos has helped lead, that the President launched at the G7, was designed to try to mobilize more capital in that direction, starting with G7 partners, but also on the premise that governments simply can’t do this on their own, nor should they.  Our role is to figure out how we can build more effective public-private partnerships and in particular what we can do in places where there may be challenges to de-risk the investments and bring them to scale.

And I think what the President wanted to really get at with this forum, with this incredible expertise, was for us to be able to listen and learn and determine how we can do the best possible job in opening up these areas for investment, how we can more effectively de-risk, how we can partner, how we can look at project pipelines together, and make sure that we are maximizing the impact we’re having in bringing the necessary investments to this task.

So this is I think the inaugural session that we’ve had.  We look forward also to getting together when we get to APEC in November.  But the real purpose is for us – for me – to listen and learn, because we’re determined to make this work.

We’ve said we would mobilize $600 billion by 2027.   The United States – and this is among the G7 partners that are in on this.  To date, the United States has already mobilized about 30 billion; other partners have done more.  But this doesn’t work unless we have the strongest possible public-private partnership and unless the government is maximizing its efforts to make sure that we’re creating the right kinds of environments in which investment can go forward.

So looking forward to hearing from all of you on that.  Janet.