A total of 30 officials, mostly from public offices, were given certificate Thursday after completion of a series of trainings for building their capacity and efficiency to deal with the tasks of PPP (Public Private Partnership).
Of them, two from the central bank and another from the BIBM (Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management) received the certificates after 8-month training on eight aspects of the PPP.
Deputy Governor of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) and project director Md. Abul Quasem said big infrastructure development in achieving the government's vision of 2021 and the concept of PPP can help achieve the target.
"Eight successive training programmes among 30 officials from various ministries, departments and autonomous bodies were given to make them more efficient in implementing the PPP projects," he said while speaking at a certificate giving ceremony Thursday.
Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) Project Cell of the Bangladesh Bank arranged the certificate giving ceremony on PPP Capacity Building Series Training Programme.
He said so far from the IPFF, a total of US$154.68 billion has been spent to finance nine power plants having a total capacity of 283MW in different areas of the country, three water treatment plants and a ICT (Information Communication Technology) project.
"The sectors which are eligible for financing under the IPFF are power generation, port development, environmental, industrial and solid waste management, highways and expressways, airports, terminals, water supply and distribution, social sector and ICT," he added.
Speaking as special guest, WB Country Director Johannes Zutt emphasised on rapid infrastructural development to meet the government's vision of turning Bangladesh as a middle income nation.
He said the country spends around 28 per cent of its GDP, both from public and private sectors, in infrastructure whereas countries like Thailand and Vietnam spend around 40 per cent of their GDP.
"So, we need to focus on it and need larger amount of money for infrastructure," he added.
He also urged the participants of the trainings to work hard to provide transparent platform for the private sector competition. "WB is committed to the particular agenda of PPP to help the nation reach its goal," he also said.
Mahbub Ahmed, Senior Secretary, Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance said the main aim of the government is to improve living standard of people by increasing their per capita income.
"So, growth and development are very important in this connection and we need investment for employment and poverty reduction. And PPP is the right model to meet those resource gap," he said, adding that the country needs skilled public officials to deal with the PPP tasks.
"I'm sure the knowledge the trainees got will be very helpful for the government," he added.
Abul Kalam Azad, senior secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, said the country will be engaging with a number of PPP projects very soon as a lot of those are in the pipeline.
He said the government has already approved five projects for setting up special economic zones and feasibility study for 13 more will start soon while the government planned to generate 24,000 megawatts (mws) power by 2021.
"So, a number of projects are coming up, which we believe will give a big boost to the economy in coming years. Your (participants) expertise and resource from various pockets, including those from donor agencies, will help turn the country into a middle income one," he added.
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