AGL 40.65 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (1.63%)
AIRLINK 127.51 Increased By ▲ 0.47 (0.37%)
BOP 6.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.2%)
CNERGY 4.52 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.22%)
DCL 8.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-1.75%)
DFML 41.50 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.14%)
DGKC 86.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.3%)
FCCL 31.94 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-1.05%)
FFBL 65.06 Increased By ▲ 0.26 (0.4%)
FFL 10.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.49%)
HUBC 110.15 Increased By ▲ 0.58 (0.53%)
HUMNL 14.69 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.07%)
KEL 5.15 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1.98%)
KOSM 7.17 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.89%)
MLCF 41.50 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (0.29%)
NBP 60.49 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.13%)
OGDC 194.00 Increased By ▲ 3.90 (2.05%)
PAEL 28.20 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (1.33%)
PIBTL 7.90 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.89%)
PPL 150.10 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.03%)
PRL 26.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.67%)
PTC 16.20 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.81%)
SEARL 77.35 Decreased By ▼ -8.65 (-10.06%)
TELE 7.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-4.02%)
TOMCL 35.50 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (0.25%)
TPLP 7.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-2.71%)
TREET 16.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-2.38%)
TRG 52.85 Decreased By ▼ -0.44 (-0.83%)
UNITY 26.68 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (1.99%)
WTL 1.27 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.79%)
BR100 9,949 Increased By 65.7 (0.66%)
BR30 30,910 Increased By 309.7 (1.01%)
KSE100 93,913 Increased By 557.2 (0.6%)
KSE30 29,118 Increased By 187.2 (0.65%)

Talks of public-private partnership are in vogue in the government circles. And it should be. In the absence of both adequate funds and the capacity to focus on economic growth, it is in the country's interest to make an efficient use of the private sector.
The question, however, is that where should this synergy be channelled. One area where this may be best utilised is infrastructural development. There is already a dearth of funds for PSDP. And considering the dearth of funds available with the government, chances are that PSDP allocation will be squeezed further in the current fiscal year and will remain under pressure in subsequent years as well.
The trouble is that such cutbacks typically come in infrastructural component of the programme. Be it power, roads, ports, airports, water, railways, or even urban facilities, the country's infrastructure needs are enormous, requiring massive and urgent investment in the sector. Pakistan infrastructure in term of quality and quantity averaged at 3.6 compared to South Asian average of 4.2.
While some of the existing infrastructure in the country is world class, most of it is below average. Unless it can be significantly improved, infrastructure will continue to be a bottleneck to growth, a threat to competitiveness and an obstacle to poverty reduction.
With the government fiscally challenged to deal with these issues alone, much is left to the private sector Although, private sector investment in infrastructure projects has been growing gradually it is still dismal - averaging just 1.4 percent of GDP, compared with the need to invest around 7.5 percent of GDP per annum over the next decade, to sustain a growth of 7 to 8 percent, according to ADB estimates. In comparison private investment has accounted for more than 20 percent of total investment in infrastructure in developing countries over the last decade, according to other reports.
The only thing the government needs to do before going full speed with the public-private partnership is to strengthen the policy and regulatory framework, to avoid the deadly combination of favouritism, corruption and incompetence amongst other issues.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.