The Importance of Financial Information in the Transport Sector: an Encouragement to New Outlooks and Perspectives in Light of the IDB's Vision 2025

Services in the transport sector in Latin America & the Caribbean are provided mainly by private enterprises of different sizes. However, as technical transport specialists, our knowledge and understanding of their management strategies and financial objectives remains limited. Most of the sectorial attention is rightly dedicated to the analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of the products/services provided by companies, leaving out of the picture the focus on the “business” side of their structures and operations. Such lack of awareness can be linked to several reasons. But one of the motives that mostly hinder transport practitioners from further analyzing these aspects is the ability to speak the private companies “financial language”. Engineers, planners, and even economists are not always familiar with the instruments of financial analysis, management accounting or corporate finance; concepts that are at the core of this language. When it comes to financial analysis, sectors practitioners are mainly biased in thinking about PPPs issues and project finance. This is certainly not a fault per se! However, such a narrow focus can unquestionably represent an obstacle to the full comprehension of the phenomena and rationales that impact the sectors functioning