Islamabad: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has urged his Cabinet colleagues to use Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) mode of financing for development projects for their respective Ministries/ Divisions.
He floated this proposal at a recent meeting of Federal Cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He briefed the Cabinet on innovative development expenditure financing and shared the following highlights about P3A introduction. He noted that IPDF (Infrastructure project Development Facility) was established in 2007 and converted into a statutory body, PPP Authority, in 2017-18.
Umer further stated that the PPP Authority was transferred to the MoPD&SI in March 2020 from Ministry of Finance, adding that from 2009-2020, there was no regular CEO of IPDF or PPP Authority and not a single board meeting was held during this period.
He maintained that regular full-time CEO was appointed in March 2020 through an open and competitive process. PPP Authority was re-branded as P3A and complete organizational turn-around was achieved.
Umar said business-friendly amendments were introduced in the law in 2021-22 and Rs 618 billion worth of high impact projects are under active development.
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The P3A projects are as follows: (i) Sialkot-Kharian Motorway of Rs27 billion has been approved by the P3A Board; (ii) Sukkur -Hyderabad Motorway (previously floated in 2018 and 2020) of Rs200 billion (transaction structure approved by P3A Board, P3A is conducting final analysis of bidding documents). Tender will be floated in November 2021; (iii) Kharian Rawalpindi Motorwsay, cost Rs80 billion (P3A analysis of transaction structure in final stage). Its tender will be floated in October 2021(next month); (iv) Karachi Circular Railway- cost Rs240 billion (P3A analysis of the draft transaction structure is under way, final documents awaited. The project's tenders will be floated in December 2021; and (v) Karachi Pipri (Freight Corridor) - cost Rs 71 billion (P3A has completed analysis of the revised transaction structure and will share comments with the IA). The scheme's tender will be floated in December 2021.
During discussion, the Umar urged the Cabinet members to use the P3A mode of financing for development projects of their respective Ministries/Divisions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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