ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday approved a plan to strengthen its public-private partnership framework to accelerate infrastructure and development projects, as the government looks to attract private investment and ease pressure on public finances.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday gave in-principle approval to integrate the Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) with a broader privatization framework, aiming to streamline how projects are planned and executed with private sector participation.
The move comes as Pakistan, facing fiscal constraints and limited public spending capacity, seeks to rely more on private capital to fund large-scale infrastructure and development initiatives, a model widely used in emerging economies to boost growth without increasing government debt.
Public-private partnerships allow governments to work with private companies to finance, build and operate projects such as roads, energy systems and urban infrastructure, helping speed up delivery while sharing financial risk.
“We are making the public-private partnership system more transparent and efficient through P3A,” Sharif said, according to a statement issued after the meeting.
Under the new arrangement, the P3A will operate under the Privatization Division and be overseen by the Cabinet Committee on Privatization, in a bid to improve coordination and align project execution with broader economic reforms.
Sharif also directed ministries and government departments to build capacity to initiate projects under the public-private partnership model and made such initiatives part of their performance benchmarks.
The statement said the changes were informed by global and regional models of public-private partnerships, with the government seeking to adopt best practices to improve implementation and investor confidence.
The prime minister instructed authorities to fast-track implementation of the newly approved framework.
