Islamabad, December 28, 2021 (PPI-OT):The inclusion and integration of the private sector for public developmental infrastructure services is necessary for socioeconomic development and forward-looking Pakistan. To this end, the Federal Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) is playing a pivotal role in enabling the achievement of the government’s development agenda.
P3A’s core strategic vision is to drive the uplift of the national PPP ecosystem, working with key stakeholder groups in various capacities to achieve that, while creating a dynamic market of bankable PPP projects at the federal level. To this end, P3A in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is hosting a first-of-its-kind series of PPP workshop that brings together PPP units at the federal and provincial levels to brainstorm best practices in preparing and implementing PPP projects, navigate bottlenecks in Pakistan’s PPP landscape and encourage overall collaboration among various stakeholders.
The first workshop of this series was held on Friday the 17th of December, where P3A engaged with various senior PPP stakeholders of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The workshop’s primary goal was to deliberate best practices with a panel of industry experts in developing the PPP ecosystem in AJK, particularly in the context of building out AJK’s social sectors including education and healthcare.
In addition, the workshop also aimed to establish an ‘open door’ policy for future knowledge share. The workshop was chaired by P3A’s Chief Executive Officer, Malik Ahmad Khan, while the ADB panel of experts included Dr. Daud Munir, Partner Axis Law Chamber, member of the New York Bar and Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan; Aania Alam, acting Head Strategy and Operations at P3A, policy and transformation expert with extensive international experience including in multilateral policy advisory for the G20; and Dr. Naveed Iftikhar, Senior Governance Specialist and Adjunct Faculty at Suleman Dawood School of Business at LUMS. The discussions were further assisted by both ADB consultants and P3A’s Projects Team.
During this interactive ‘closed door’ workshop, the officials from AJK got an opportunity to share their experiences and better understand how to best leverage their resources in order to capitalize their existing capacity and build-out new capabilities and enabling frameworks. The experts also shared case studies to showcase opportunities where capacity could be enhanced through fostering local and sector specific alliances.
The participants were inspired by the quantum of effort and dedication P3A had put in advancing its PPP ecosystem within a short span of time. The AJK officials expressed their willingness to continue greater dialogue in the future and recommended inviting AJK private sector stakeholders to future workshops as well to strengthen public-private collaboration and dialogue.
Both P3A and ADB pledged their support in supporting the PPP capacity build out which is vital in shaping the overall development landscape of the country, thus creating the required infrastructure and services for Pakistan’s burgeoning population, as well as uplifting the socioeconomic well-being of the people. In continuation of the series, similar workshops are scheduled for the third week of December 2021 with the Government of Baluchistan and the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan.
For more information, contact:
Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives
“P” Block, Pakistan Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-9209442
Fax: +92-51-9201777
Email: webmanager@pc.gov.pk
Website: https://www.pc.gov.pk/