RESOURCES/FEATURED STORIES

Supporting Bangladesh Use PPPs to Develop Infrastructure

01 March 2015
The government of Bangladesh (GoB) continues to strengthen its ability to use Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a financing mechanism for the development of much needed infrastructure in the country. The establishment of a PPP unit under the Prime Minister’s Office and a new financing mechanisms such as the “Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund” and the Viability Gap Facility, are indications of the governments strong interest in achieving the goal set in its Five Year Plan 2011 – 2015. The goal of the plan is to  increase total investment in infrastructure from 2% to 6% of its GDP

The government of Bangladesh (GoB) continues to strengthen its ability to use Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a financing mechanism for the development of much needed infrastructure in the country. The establishment of a PPP unit under the Prime Minister’s Office and a new financing mechanisms such as the “Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund” and the Viability Gap Facility, are indications of the governments strong interest in achieving the goal set in its Five Year Plan 2011 – 2015. The goal of the plan is to  increase total investment in infrastructure from 2% to 6% of its GDP while at the same time increasing the share of private investment as part of that total amount of investment. However, the overall capacity of the GoB to initiate, execute and manage PPP projects is limited. Thus, the government recently requested support from PPIAF and the World Bank to continue to expand it’s PPP vision for the country.

To provide systematic support to the government, PPIAF launched the Bangladesh PPP Support Program. The program is designed to help strengthen and expand the current shelf of infrastructure projects across sectors that could be implemented through PPPs. The Program would seek to identify and provide inputs to the GoB on policy and regulatory framework based on project specific sectors. Moreover, the Program seeks to contribute to ongoing capacity building efforts by facilitating workshops, roundtables, trainings and exposure visits targeting diverse stakeholders including government officials in line ministries and the private sector.

The ultimate long term goal is to attract substantial investments through PPP mode in social and economic infrastructure. This goal will contribute to the acceleration of growth and reduction of poverty, thereby leading to enhanced social and economic development of the country to realize the vision of transforming Bangladesh into a middle income country by the year 2021.