August 18, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 4, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 17: A liaison between the public and private sectors at all stages of projects — from inception to materialisation — is the gateway to economic development. Such a view emerged as the crux of the speech delivered by Aijaz Ahmad, the chief executive officer of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs’ Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), at a seminar on Draft Public-Private Partnership Standardised Contractual Provisions.

The seminar was an attempt to initiate consultative process between the representatives of the public- and private-sector organisations to finalise a framework for their partnership.

Mr Ahmad said the progress achieved by the developed states bore testimony to the fact that the provision of basic infrastructure services played a pivotal role in accelerating the pace of national economic growth. The government, he said, recognised the importance of improving and expanding infrastructure services for sustaining the country’s socio-economic development in its Medium Term Development Framework 2005-2010.

He informed the audience that to facilitate the PPP projects by providing expertise and hands-on support to the public-sector implementation agencies, the government had recently established the IPDF under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.

The IPDF had prepared the Draft Standardised PPP Provisions and Draft Model PPP Agreement to facilitate the public and private parties in expeditiously achieving financial close and implementing the PPP agreement efficiently.

He stated that work on several PPP initiatives, including the Lahore Mass Transit project, the Islamabad-Rawalpindi Mass Transit project, the Environment-Friendly Public Transport (CNG Buses) Service, the Islamabad IT Park, the Multipurpose Water Reservoirs, the CBR Automation Project, the Kalinger Water Supply and the Charsadda Solid Waste Management, was already under way.

Dr Asad Ali Shah, member (infrastructure) planning commission, stated that economic progress depended on strong linkages and interaction between the public and private sectors. In Pakistan, he said, the government was looking towards active participation of the private sector in the national economic development.

“We have opened discussions on the draft PPP contractual framework as we believe that the private sector’s assistance and expertise would have a fruitful bearing on the government-initiated process of economic development,” he added.

Observing that infrastructure services could have a direct and immediate effect on the living standards and poverty alleviation efforts, he maintained that potable water and sanitation could dramatically reduce debilitating and life-threatening diseases.

Electricity could transform the quality of life for urban and rural citizens, better roads could connect isolated communities with markets and modern modes of telecommunication could empower the poor by putting them in touch with markets, services and society at large, he believed.

Dilating upon public-private partnership as a pre-requisite for rapid economic growth, IPDF legal consultant Ejaz Ishaq Khan stated that a PPP agreement provided a strong base for taking the country on the path to progress, involving the sharing of risks and rewards of multi-sector skills, expertise and finance to deliver the desired policy outcomes.

Leading bankers and investors, representatives and officials of the federal, provincial and local governments, public-sector agencies, executives from law firms and insurance companies as well as other stakeholders actively participated in the seminar and presented their opinions on the draft PPP framework.