The government's much-hyped public-private partnership (PPP) initiative has almost failed to make any headway over the last six years due to multifarious factors including absence of proper policy framework and bureaucratic tangle, experts said.
The government wants to run the big development projects under PPP but due to little response from the private entrepreneurs the result is almost zero.
The PPP programme is part of the Government's Vision 2021 goal to ensure a more rapid, inclusive growth trajectory, and to better meet the need for enhanced, high quality public services in a fiscally sustainable manner.
An official of PPP office, which is run under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), told the FE that in last six years, the government started only 35 PPP development projects which are now lying pending or under consideration or at different stages of execution.
He it takes a long time to execute a PPP project due to little response from the entrepreneurs.
He said the government could not formulate any concrete rules and regulation for PPP project.
The official admitted that unnecessary intervention of government officials and their intransigent attitude are mainly responsible for failure of PPP.
Mustafa K Mujeri, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) told the FE "The PPP is a new idea but the absence of proper guidelines has stood in the way of realizing its full potential".
He said transparency, consultation with stakeholders and sound regulatory framework are very important for mailing of PPP projects a success.
An expert on public private partnership told the FE "Absence of meaningful competition, poor specification by the government and the incompetent bidders stand in the way of timely implementation of all PPP projects".
Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) President Jahangir Alamin told the FE the government wants to run the state-owned textile mills under PPP but due to poor response from the entrepreneurs the initiative could not be materialised.
He said none of the 18 units under the BTMC could be brought under the PPP arrangement even nearly four years the government move, which was initiated in 2009.
BTMC Chairman Bayezid Sarwar told the FE entrepreneurs were not interested to undertake projects under PPP.
He said during the last four years they could not make any headway in operating the BTMC mills under the PPP.
 "We want to make the mills profitable through PPP or joint venture (JV), but we don't get any response from the entrepreneurs", the BTMC chief said
A senior official of energy ministry told the FE they have been looking for a number of investors for setting up Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant under PPP but there is no response from the investors.
He said LPG demand is growing sharply in the country but the private enterprises are reluctant to invest money in PPP project.
Govt’s PPP initiative fails to make any headway
Shah Alam Nur | Published: March 05, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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