Islamabad: A bulk of infrastructure projects will be completed through private sector investment instead of Public Sector Development Programe (PSDP), a news source quoted Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar. He said this during a meeting held to review infrastructure projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework, PSDP-funded projects and the fiscal difficulties.
Secretary Planning Zafar Hasan, Secretary Communication Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, DG National Logistics Cell Maj Gen Asim Iqbal, Engineer-in-Chief of Pakistan Army Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal, Chairman National Highways Authority (NHA) Jawad Rafique Malik, Member Infrastructure Malik Ahmed Khan and senior officials of ministries concerned attended the meeting.
The minister disclosed that current fiscal space in the 12th Five-Year Plan would no longer cater to funding infrastructure projects of road and railways sector that would be shifted to private sector investment.
The shrinkage in fiscal space has already forced the government to cut PSDP spending from PKR 1 trillion to PKR 675 billion under the supplementary budget. It is mulling attracting private investors by formally operationalising public-private partnership (PPP) or offering road and railways projects through Build, Operate & Transfer (BOT) mode.
A major chunk of the PSDP share goes to National Highways and Motorways because of many CPEC-related projects. Last year, NHA spent PKR 341 billion out of its total allocations of around PKR 795 billion.
The meeting was briefed about the progress on various road infrastructure and railway projects and the participants were told find an alternate source of funding for the projects as they were draining the PSDP. The participants were unanimous in the view that securing private sector investments or shifting to BOT mode will reduce the fiscal burden on PSDP and would also ensure adequate funds for timely execution of the projects.
