Pakistan direly needs more infrastructural development projects with joint collaboration of the public and private sectors to accelerate economic development and the newly elected government is focusing its attention on public-private partnership (PPP).
This was stated by Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission (PC) Salman Faruqui while addressing a seminar here on Thursday. The seminar on "Public sector's role in managing the PPPs" was organised by the Infrastructure Management Unit of Planning (IMU) Commission. Salman Faruqi said that global private investment in infrastructure had exceeded 100 billion dollars annually, adding that UK had more than 700 operational PPP projects.
The PC Deputy Chairman said that the importance of the PPPs was increased in present era, in which the government was determined to provide basic civic amenities to the people.
PC member Lieutenant-General Muhammad Zubair (retd) said that a high level committee had been formed to remove the constraints in the PPPs and to develop communications among the relevant agencies for delivering better services. He said that the PC had decided to arrange foreign trading for officials of infrastructure development-related ministries to gain foreign expertise and knowledge of the PPPs in developed countries.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) country head Peter Fedon said the ADB was providing technical and financial assistance to improve infrastructure, adding that the demand to invest in this sector reached one trillion dollars per annum. He said the PPPs could further strengthen to bring some changes in policies by providing financial safety to the private sector investors.