"The white paper will mainly outline the weaknesses we faced in our PPP endeavors so far, clearly identify the extent of PPP in rural, semi-urban and urban areas and delineate roles that public and private actors should play," said Dr Pushkar Bajracharya, a member of National Planning Commission (NPC).[break]
Speaking at a workshop in which public and private sector representatives shared their experiences on poor PPP outcomes, Vice Chairman of NPC Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokharel attributed lack of confidence between the public and private sectors on each other as one major factor behind the failure of effective implementation of the concept.
"Clearly, the lack of specific policy and legal framework on PPP operations so far compelled the private sector to doubt the protection of investments," he said. Lack of confidence and capacity in the public sector too discouraged the public sector to take stronger steps to convince and lead the private sector, he added.
Given the situation, Dr Pokharel said NPC realized the need for categorical policy on PPP and formulation of appropriate PPP Act to bridge the existing gap and give new life to the concept of PPP.
"We talked a lot on papers. But in reality we never took steps to make the concept work," reflected Dr Pokharel on his experience on PPP and urged the private sector to openly discuss their issues of concerns with the government.
Kush Kumar Joshi, president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), on the other hand, attributed lack of legal framework whereby the private sector can be assured of safety of their investments as major factor behind lukewarm response from the private sector to major development projects.
"So far, we have only Built-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) Act through which private sector can jump into big public sector projects. But even this Act has remained defunct in the absence of by-laws and workable directives," said Joshi.
Among others, he also urged the government to make the Act flexible in terms of time span of ownership transfer, apart from formulating broader policy on PPP itself.
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