PPP policy may be finalised this month
Friday, 15 January 2010
FHM Humayan Kabir
The government is likely to finalise Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policy within this month as the Board of Investment (BoI) sought approval of the cabinet regarding its draft guideline last week, officials said Thursday.
The officials said BoI has already devised the policy titled "Bangladesh Public Private Partnership Policy and Guideline 2009" and sent it to the cabinet division to place it before the cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already given her consent to the draft policy on PPP, a new investment model to attract private investment aimed at steering economic growth through infrastructure development, a BoI official told the FE.
The government started to frame the PPP policy early this year in order to upgrade the country's ailing infrastructure, especially transport and energy sectors.
Officials said depending on the type of projects under PPP, the government would provide equity or loan to private investors to ensure their participation.
Impoverished Bangladesh needs huge investment in infrastructure development notably for power and energy sectors' development and communications system's improvement with a view to attracting more investment.
The development projects under the new investment arrangement would be supervised by Private Infrastructure Committee (PICOM) with secretarial support from BoI, an official at the finance ministry said without disclosing his name.
"In the draft PPP policy and guideline, BoI has proposed restructuring PICOM, led by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, to look after the projects under PPP," he said.
The government in the current financial year has introduced the PPP concept, that has turned popular in neighbouring India, and allocated Tk 25 billion in the current national budget.
Out of the fund, Tk 1.0 billion will be spent for pre-feasibility studies and other preparatory works before asking the private sector to submit their bids for PPP projects.
Besides, Tk 21 billion has been offered in the budget to accelerate the process of investment through PPP and Tk 3.0 billion for "Viability Gap Funding" as subsidy or seed money to attract private initiatives for construction of power plants, hospitals, schools, roads and highways which are non-profitable but essential to public services.
The present government has already taken moves to construct elevated expressway and metro-rail network in the capital and some power and energy projects under the new investment framework.
The donor agencies including World Bank and Asian Development Bank have lauded the PPP idea, and offered necessary support to it in the coming days.
The finance ministry said, in addition to the existing public and private investment programmes, an investment of US$28 billion would be required by 2013-14 fiscal year to achieve 8 per cent GDP growth for Bangladesh.
It added that there is US$1.04 billion investment deficit in Bangladesh in the current fiscal year.
In order to attract the said amount of investment through the PPP initiative, the government has decided to give a big push to provide incentives to the private sector.
The government is likely to finalise Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policy within this month as the Board of Investment (BoI) sought approval of the cabinet regarding its draft guideline last week, officials said Thursday.
The officials said BoI has already devised the policy titled "Bangladesh Public Private Partnership Policy and Guideline 2009" and sent it to the cabinet division to place it before the cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already given her consent to the draft policy on PPP, a new investment model to attract private investment aimed at steering economic growth through infrastructure development, a BoI official told the FE.
The government started to frame the PPP policy early this year in order to upgrade the country's ailing infrastructure, especially transport and energy sectors.
Officials said depending on the type of projects under PPP, the government would provide equity or loan to private investors to ensure their participation.
Impoverished Bangladesh needs huge investment in infrastructure development notably for power and energy sectors' development and communications system's improvement with a view to attracting more investment.
The development projects under the new investment arrangement would be supervised by Private Infrastructure Committee (PICOM) with secretarial support from BoI, an official at the finance ministry said without disclosing his name.
"In the draft PPP policy and guideline, BoI has proposed restructuring PICOM, led by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, to look after the projects under PPP," he said.
The government in the current financial year has introduced the PPP concept, that has turned popular in neighbouring India, and allocated Tk 25 billion in the current national budget.
Out of the fund, Tk 1.0 billion will be spent for pre-feasibility studies and other preparatory works before asking the private sector to submit their bids for PPP projects.
Besides, Tk 21 billion has been offered in the budget to accelerate the process of investment through PPP and Tk 3.0 billion for "Viability Gap Funding" as subsidy or seed money to attract private initiatives for construction of power plants, hospitals, schools, roads and highways which are non-profitable but essential to public services.
The present government has already taken moves to construct elevated expressway and metro-rail network in the capital and some power and energy projects under the new investment framework.
The donor agencies including World Bank and Asian Development Bank have lauded the PPP idea, and offered necessary support to it in the coming days.
The finance ministry said, in addition to the existing public and private investment programmes, an investment of US$28 billion would be required by 2013-14 fiscal year to achieve 8 per cent GDP growth for Bangladesh.
It added that there is US$1.04 billion investment deficit in Bangladesh in the current fiscal year.
In order to attract the said amount of investment through the PPP initiative, the government has decided to give a big push to provide incentives to the private sector.