July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 10: Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Salman Farooqui has said that the government is short of budgetary resources and needs private investment in order to help undertake increased development activities across Pakistan.

Speaking at a seminar on public-private partnership here on Thursday, Mr Farooqui said the investment would be provided necessary protection. “And for this purpose we are ready to remove the concerns of the private investors and at the same time we would also offer them all possible fiscal and non fiscal incentives,” he added.

The government had decided to “focus” on encouraging public-private partnership without which, no enough resources could be generated, he said, adding that Pakistan direly needed more infrastructural development projects with joint collaboration of the public and private sectors to accelerate economic development

Mr Farooqui said public-private partnerships could play a key role in increasing resources and improving efficiencies. It would not only improve the condition of country’s finances, but also provide access to better managerial expertise, new technologies, better project designs and implementation and more efficient use of resources.

Mohammad Zubair, member Infrastructure Management Unit; Peter Fedon, country director, Asian Development Bank; Aijaz Ahmad, CEO, IPDF; and Inaam-ul-Haq, former chairman, Policy Planning Cell, Punjab, also spoke.

The seminar was informed that the Infrastructure Management Unit (IMU) of the Planning Commission was currently implementing the project Infrastructure Institutional Capacity Building and Project Preparatory Facility through technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank. The objective of the project was to assist the country in enhancing the enabling environment for infrastructure investment by the private sector, developing public-private partnership modalities and supporting institutional capacity building.

The IMU conducted a diagnostic study in 2007 on “Constraints to Private Sector Investment in Infrastructure” to identify constraints to private sector investment in infrastructure.

Consultants have underlined the urgent need to create appropriate capacity and capability according to international standards for dealing with public-private partnership issues in Pakistan.

Accordingly, the sub project on integration and streamlining public-private partnership in the planning process was created in 2008, which is under implementation by IMU with the objectives of establishing dedicated core group of public-private partnership experts in the Planning Commission.