Ayesha Saba

By leveraging private sector participation, Pakistan can tap into additional funds, expertise, and technology, which are crucial for addressing its infrastructure development, Haroon Sharif, former chairman Board of Investment (BOI), told WealthPK. “The government's finances are already squeezed owing to the rising debt servicing costs and budget deficits, so it seeks private sector participation to bring in investment. The state should not be solely responsible for building everything. “The government's collaboration with the private sector can facilitate the implementation of projects on a larger scale, for improved infrastructure quality, expanded services, and sustained economic growth,” he said.

“The private sector requires three things: rule of law, stable and consistent policies, and effective dispute resolution mechanisms. Pakistan needs to send a positive signal to the market and adopt a path of progressive growth. Leveraging its geopolitical position to solve economic problems was ineffective in the past and would not yield results in future,” he stated. Haroon stressed that Pakistan should concentrate on private sector investment, as the future lay there. Instead of relying on state-owned loans for capital, there is a need to attract investment through the required policy initiatives, he added. Moreover, the economic zones should be managed by the private sector, as bureaucrats are not equipped to run them.

He further cautioned that given global recession predictions, no country would be able to help Pakistan, which would require it to take advantage of its own opportunities. Talking to WealthPK on the condition of anonymity, an official of the Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) told WealthPK, “The government had made changes to the Public Private Partnership Authority Act, 2017, in 2020 and 2021 to create an enabling environment for public-private partnership by streamlining the project approval process and providing an effective framework for policy guidelines.” "We are continually working with the private sector to push the government's development agenda through mobilizing private sector capital.

The P3A is working on various mega projects in the National Highways Authority and Pakistan Railways under the PPP mechanism. The PPP model is still emerging in Pakistan; it will take time to mature, but it will eventually deliver,” the official stated. According to WealthPK research, the primary objective of P3A is to provide an enabling legal and regulatory framework for developing, executing and implementing P3 transactions, thereby promoting private sector investment towards building the public infrastructure and provision of related services.

Credit: INP-WealthPk