Public-private partnerships play important role in economic growth

Governments across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are increasingly looking to utilise public-private partnerships (PPPs) in order to gain efficiencies, mobilise additional resources, and extend services to their citizens, residents, and visitors, according to the latest observations from International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm for the information technology and telecommunications markets. Such partnerships are proving popular not only in the traditional fields of mega-infrastructure projects such as roads and mass transit systems, but also as an alternate means of expanding and enhancing the delivery of services, modernising education and healthcare systems, and increasing the availability and diffusion of ICT, without necessarily having to directly allocate capital expenditure to such initiatives. Supporting this claim of surging popularity, the World Bank’s Private Participation in Infrastructure database indicates that, while the MEA region accounted for approximately 6 per cent ($47.84 billion) of global investment on PPP infrastructure projects between 1990-2000, that share grew to approximately 15 per cent ($126.50 billion) in the period between 2001 and 2008. “Across the region, various PPP initiatives are being undertaken by private ICT players, with the support of the respective governments, to build infrastructure and deliver services across the judiciary, transportation, education, and healthcare sectors,” says Mukesh Chulani, senior research analyst the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey at IDC Government Insights. From / Gulf Today