Government and stakeholders discuss draft Public Private Partnership Policy
Fifi Kwetey, Deputy Minister of Economic Planning, on Thursday asked Ministries, Departments and Agencies to explore opportunities for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in infrastructure and service procurement before resorting to the traditional model of direct government investment.
They must also enforce the rules and regulations, monitor and ensure the viability and sustainability of the projects to be undertaken under the PPP initiative.
Mr Kwetey was speaking at a stakeholders’ forum aimed at firming up the draft national PPP policy that would set the stage for the development of guiding principles and rules for improving and providing adequate infrastructure for public service delivery.
He said developing a national PPP policy was one of the first steps to encourage private sector participation in infrastructure as it would help illustrate a strong political will and firm commitment to this means of procurement.
Besides, the national PPP policy will drive government in drafting a PPP law and aid the development of an appropriate institutional structure and operational guidelines.
Mr Kwetey said the need for PPP was even greater now because the traditional methods of funding projects through tax revenues, domestic borrowing, external loans, foreign grants and donor support were not enough to address the gap.
“The traditional domestic and external borrowings impact negatively on the country’s debt sustainability and credit worthiness. Government, therefore, has to strike a balance between borrowing levels that will not jeopardize the country’s credit rating and at the same time solving the overarching problem of infrastructural development,” he said.
Government, he said, was considering under the PPP framework the implementation of projects in areas such as inter city highways, rehabilitation of rail network, development of educational facilities and the provision of health and social services.
He said the transition from direct public investment to PPPs required the development of new attitudes to make projects available to satisfy the needs of the country.
Mr Paul Victor Obeng, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), said the fiscal gap did not provide government enough scope to accelerate infrastructural development.
He said PPP were, therefore, a potential source of relief on government budget and urged private sector players to look into the opportunities that would be provided to solve the country’s huge infrastructural problem.
Mr Lorenzo Bertolini, Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, pledged the support of the World Bank in moving the agenda forward to consolidate the legal and institutional framework for PPP.
Source: GNA