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Talking
to the reporters after the workshop organized by
Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), in
collaboration with the Infrastructure Management Unit of
the Planning Commission, Shah said budget deficit during
the first half of current fiscal year (July-Dec) remained
over the target and there is room to control it by the end
of fiscal year.
He said that federal government has directed Federal Board
of Revenue (FBR) to increase the revenue collection during
the current financial year.
The government is considering initiating the projects of
oil seeds in the country to overcome the rising prices of
oil and ghee, he said adding that rise in ghee prices had
happened after linking the prices of Malaysian palm oil
with oil prices in international markets.
The government would soon launch saving cards scheme in
the urban areas for different commodities to save the
common man from the impact of inflation.
The minister said that fiscal deficit during the first six
months of the current financial year stood at 2.5 percent
that was above the target. He also said that competitive
commission would create the atmosphere of the competition
in the country.
Responding to a question about the agriculture sector he
said that the prices of crops like wheat, sugarcane, rice
and livestock were increasing which has resulted in hiking
the income of the farmers.
Earlier, addressing the workshop, Shah said that Pakistan
direly needs more infrastructural development projects
with in collaboration with the public and private sectors
to accelerate economic development in the country. In this
regard, he said, the government has started a
comprehensive training programme for senior officials of
the concerned federal ministries as well as provincial
governments so that the private sector investors are
encouraged, through proper guidance, to make optimum
investments in the infrastructure development projects.
The prime purpose of organising the workshop was to give
the senior federal and provincial government officials an
introduction and broad based overview of Public Private
Partnerships based on unitary charge based models.
Apart from Federal Minister for Finance Dr. Salman Shah,
senior officials from the ministry of finance, the
planning commission and the provincial governments also
attended the workshop.
Lead infrastructure specialist of the World Bank, Clive
Harris, President of Americas, Castalia, Alfonso Guzman,
and Barrister Ejaz Ishaq Khan from Aqlaal Associates
(Legal Consultant IPDF) also gave detailed presentations
on international experience of Annuity based Public
Private Partnerships and the Standardized Public Private
Partnership Contractual Provisions.
IPDF’s Chief Executive Officer Aijaz Ahmed gave a
comprehensive introduction to the Annuity based Public
Private Partnerships and also presented an overview of the
recently announced Public Private Partnerships Policy of
Pakistan.
He said that under Annuity based Public Private
Partnership instead of the public sector procuring a
capital asset and providing a public service; the private
sector creates the asset through a dedicated standalone
business and then delivers the service to the consumers in
return for payment from the public sector institution that
is linked to performance.
The Public Private Partnership modality of developing
infrastructure and then delivering services to the
consumers permits the public sector to reduce its capital
expenditure and convert the infrastructure development
costs into affordable operating expenditure spread over
time, he added.
Earlier, Member Implementation & Monitoring, Planning
Commission and Executive Director of Infrastructure
Management Unit Lt. Gen (Retd) Muhammad Zubair welcomed
the distinguished participants. He said that in addition
to affordable and timely services, the government’s
objectives in promoting Public Private Partnership
projects are to clear the huge backlog in basic services,
like water, sanitation, solid waste management, transport
and power.
A decline in public sector investment in infrastructure,
as a percentage of GDP, in the 1990s, has resulted in
creating a huge backlog and high maintenance costs of the
infrastructure. Efforts to attract private investment, in
particular, in power and telecom sector, have shown that
these investments can be realized and can contribute to
meet funding gaps in infrastructure.
Source
: Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan, dated
08/02/2008
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