The Punjab government Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and a Letter of Understanding (LoU) with the Health Services Academy, Islamabad for capacity building and technical support to ensure that development projects are successful, cost effective and efficient. On behalf of the Punjab government, Member (Health) P&D Board Dr Shabana Haider signed the MoU and LoU Dr Syed Turab Hussain, Associate Professor signed the MoU on behalf of Mahbub-ul-haq Research Centre LUMS while Dr Saima Hamid, assistant professor and registrar signed the LOU on behalf of HSA Islamabad.
The purpose of these public-private partnerships was to render expertise from academia devising project planning, technical support, financial/economic appraisal, project design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. Addressing the Ceremony, Chairman P&D Punjab Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan said that the signing of MoU was an excellent endeavour to formalise a strong public private partnership with academia working in the development sector.
He emphasised that this partnership would not only provide technical support and expertise but would also incorporate the services of highly qualified and experienced professionals, researchers, teachers of public & private sector universities to facilitate the development process.
Punjab Planning & Development would strengthen the linkage with academia in development sectors to fill the gap between Government, academia and policy makers while line departments would seek short term technical assistance in projects, he added.
Government departments need capacity building and technical support to make the development projects smooth, successful, cost effective, efficient to maximise the service delivery of projects on faster pace. Therefore to achieve the requisite objectives and to enable the Government departments to tackle their technical needs in the development projects, strong & effective partnership with academia was essentially required.
Addressing the ceremony, Secretary P&D Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that Punjab Government recognised the benefits which could be derived from increased collaboration, cooperation and interaction with academia in development sector. He congratulated all three parties for this excellent initiative and encouraged the promotion of such partnerships in the Government Sector.