The country hopes to net some US$ 1.5 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) a year as it has created an enabling investment environment under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) paradigm.
Authorities concerned aired such high hopes based on the groundwork done for more than five years with the latest concept of major development works.
Investment opportunities under various PPP projects have now been created, paving the way for getting the investment, they said.
This should be no less than $1.5 billion per annum, said one of them.
Official sources said contracts on seven PPP projects had already been signed which started fetching investment worth $1.3 billion.
As a good number of PPP projects in sectors like infrastructure, energy, health, and tourism will be ready this year and in the next couple of years, cash flow is expected to continue to increase in the years ahead.
"The amount may increase two to threefold when other projects which are in the pipeline will be ready for implementation," said an official of the PPP Authority Bangladesh.
He said the Authority expects investment worth $6.0 billion in next five years when other pipeline projects, which are now in different stages of procurement, will also be ready for implementation.
However, Chief Executive Officer of PPP Authority Syed Afsor H Uddin preferred to refrain from giving estimation about potential investment. But he claimed that an environment to attract foreign companies had been created following development of related policy, law, institutional setup, marketing, monitoring mechanism and the like.
"Initially there was lack of confidence about investment in the country under PPP. But the environment has now been created to attract world-reputed companies by developing act, laws, guidelines following international laws, norms, practices,`` the CEO told the FE at his office.
He said though the country has many projects implemented and under implementation following more or less private-sector partnership for long, the PPP projects initially could not attract investors for a lack of confidence.
At present, 43 PPP projects are in pipeline, 13 of transport sector, 10 of economic zones, nine of health sector, five each of civil aviation and tourism and one of energy sector.
Though the PPP Authority assesses the PPP projects' growth by calculating Hanif Flyover, Dhaka Elevated Expressway and some energy-sector projects, those were not implemented following PPP guidelines and modalities.
Since the 1990s, private-sector involvement with various infrastructure projects had been found. These include KAFCO fertilizer joint venture, BIRDEM Heart Foundation, and Haripur 360MW and Meghnaghat 450MW power plants which were implemented on private-sector-partnership-based project, joint venture and other models, not following PPP model.
The PPP projects now under implementation are formulated with the help of world-renowned companies like Deloitte, PwC, IIFC, MMM Group, KPMG, EY etc who worked as transaction adviser, independent consultants.
The PPP Act 2015, contract and bid document, performance guarantee, compensation, dispute resolution and rights, duties and obligations are done to create the right investment environment under PPP.
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