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India is likely to see implementation of one of the biggest infrastructure programmes in 21st century, amongst the largest economies and creating fiscal sources of capital would be key to this initiative, according to a KPMG report. 

“Steps to unlock foreign and domestic capital via innovative financial structures and facilitating ease of investments would be vital,” the report observes.

The report comes in the backdrop of India emerging as the world’s fastest growing major economy fuelled by large government expenditure on big ticket projects in the highways, seaports, airports and railways sectors.

The 'KPMG 2024 Infrastructure and Transport CEO Outlook' report states that a survey of 120 sector leaders from across the world found that CEOs in the infrastructure and transportation sector anticipate business growth over the next three years, in terms of earnings and headcount.

According to the report, 63% of Infrastructure and Transportation CEOs expect earnings to grow by more than 2.5% over the next 3 years, but they are concerned about the impact of generative AI and other new technologies, the current state of the global economy and the competition for talent. It revealed that globally 57 per cent of sector CEOs say stakeholder expectations pertaining to Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) are changing faster than they can adapt their strategy.

More than half of CEOs believe that a global failure on climate-change adaptation will have a real short-to-medium term impact on their growth, the report states.

Manish Aggarwal, partner, co-head deal advisory, and head Infrastructure, Disinvestments, and Special Situations Group, KPMG in India said that the race to embrace emerging technologies, such as Gen AI, has risen up on the agenda for CEOs across the infrastructure and transport sector.

“The CEOs in our survey noted concerns related to talent shortages, technology adoption and climate risk. They say they are worried about the risks of generative AI and missing their Net Zero targets. They talk of shifting stakeholder expectations and complex technology environments,” the KPMG report states.

“Yet they also show encouraging ambition and action. They are intent on investing into expanding their AI capabilities and skills. They are prioritizing their workforce and developing their talent. Perhaps most importantly, they are more focused than ever on building public trust,” the report added.

The 10th edition of the KPMG CEO Outlook, conducted the survey with 1,325 CEOs between July 25- 29, 2024. All respondents have annual revenues of over USD 500 million and a third of the total companies surveyed have more than USD 10 billion in annual revenue. The survey included CEOs from 11 key markets --Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and USA and 11 key industry sectors.