Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah has ruled out any possibility of immediate cut in oil prices despite 18 dollar per barrel reduction in the international market which hovered near record levels above 70 dollar per barrel in June this year.
Talking to newsmen here on Wednesday, Dr Shah said the government would consider cut if oil prices further decrease and stabilise in the international market.
Asked weather the government of Pakistan was considering cut in oil prices as India on Wednesday announced over 4 percent reduction in oil prices, the Advisor said the government has decided to maintain Petroleum Development Levy at Zero percent as announced in the 2006-07 budget.
Dr Shah said Pakistan and the United States have completed discussions on the Bilateral Investment Treaty and establishment of reconstruction industrial zones in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan on fast track and now it is for the United States to take further steps.
Earlier, addressing the concluding session of the 2006 Public Private Partnership (PPP) Forum on "Structuring Viable, Affordable and Sustainable Public Private Partnership Projects for Infrastructure Development, he said no country can maintain 7 to 8 percent annual economic growth without private participation in the infrastructure development projects.
He said the government has developed a comprehensive structure taking all the stakeholders on board to implement the PPP agenda through three bodies, ie Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), Infrastructure Project Financing Facility (IPFF) and PPP Task Force of senior officials.
On the second day of the "launch of Pakistan PPP programme" organised by the Infrastructure Project Development Facility in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance , 8 experts from UK, India, IFC, DEPFA Investment Bank, South Africa, DSI Group Consultants, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank addressed the Forum on three major issues of Pakistan, Water and Sanitation, Solid Waste Management, Transport and Rural Electrification.
The experts stressed that commitment from the highest levels was required to successfully implement public-private partnerships, in addition to private financing, innovation and management skills.
The first panel session on "Municipal Services" David Stiggers of the DSI Group Consultants presented his paper on 'Water and Sanitation Services (WSS).
Stiggers was of the view that the with increasing population growth world-wide, the water and sanitation sector everywhere was under pressure to meet increased customer expectations for expansion of provision of services, and improvement of service levels.
He said one of the ways of supporting public water and sanitation utilities to meet these demands was by mobilising private sector resources through some form of Public Private Partnership (PPP) and learning from global experience with regard to risk management, guarantees and subsidies; financing1 regulation and learning from case studies from similar markets."
In the second panel session on Transport, William Dachs of South Africa read his paper on "Urban Mass Transport" and stressed that diverse interests of different sectors can in fact, be harnessed for the collective good as public gets better, more cost-effective services and the private sector gets new business opportunities. The third panel session on Social Services, started with a presentation on 'Health and Education' by Edward Ferquharson of Partnerships UK.
In his concluding remarks, Aijaz Ahmad, Chief Executive of Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF) stated, "The Government is launching a very comprehensive public-private partnership programme. "It includes a high level inter-governmental and inter-sectoral policy Task Force, a project development arm - which is the IPDF - and a project financing arm, ie the Infrastructure Project Financing Facility," he added.
He said IPDF will provide hands-on technical assistance and support to public sector implementation agencies undertaking infrastructure projects.