January 14, 2016
President PBIF and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, Former Provincial Minister of Information Technology and First Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI Mian Zahid Hussain told that in current economic scenario, Govt. is combating with huge fiscal deficits and capacity constraints and could not counter overall infrastructure deficit of Pakistan therefore, Govt. should engage private sector to invest in infrastructure projects for its ease.
He told that under Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) Govt. has been able to attract investment in Power Generation, Health, Education and Housing Sectors only and sectors like Transport and Logistics, Water Supply, Sanitation, Solid Waste Management and Real Estate are largely remained un-attended.
Mian Zahid Hussain told that poor governance and corruption of the previous regime in the Power Projects have stigmatized the whole phenomena of Public-Private Partnerships, while on the other hand role of private sector to improve education and health standards and providing low cost houses have been outstanding. Mian Zahid Hussain told that in Pakistan, priority changes with the change of Governments, newly arrived regime discontinue projects of previous regimes; that cause huge losses to exchequer. Mian Zahid Hussain urge govt. for policy commitment and continuity of policy so growth in infrastructure, under Public Private-Partnerships, could be guaranteed.
Mian Zahid Hussain emphasize the need to revisit Public-Private Partnerships Act and told that existing Policy Framework is unable to protect rights of potential investor rather creates bottlenecks in investment and most of the time investors are subject to litigations like Reko Diq and 3G/4G auction and etc.
Mian Zahid Hussain told that un-integrated, standalone-ness and biased decisions of policy makers, regulators, legal authorities, finance providers, the provincial and local governments and utility companies escalate completing time and cost that should be removed to promote and encourage Public Private-Partnerships Projects.
