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Infrastructure projects gaining momentum

Chief executive of PPP office speaks at roundtable

Star Business Report
The government is planning to hand out construction contracts for at least five of the big infrastructure projects including the Dhaka bypass road and Shantinagar-to-Mawa flyover by 2015.
Feasibility studies of the projects, which would be under public-private partnership, will be completed this year, said Syed Afsor H Uddin, chief executive officer of the PPP office.
He was presenting a keynote paper on the overview of the PPP programme and the forthcoming projects at a roundtable, jointly organised by the PPP Office (under Prime Minister's Office), Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) at the chamber's auditorium yesterday.
Afsor Uddin said the approximately 50-kilometre Dhaka bypass road will connect the industrial zones in the north with the southern port city of Chittagong.
The project's feasibility study is expected to complete in August this year and the contract to be awarded in December next year, he said.
About the Shantinagar to Mawa flyover, he said the purpose of the project is to facilitate traffic movement between the north and south of Dhaka city by increasing capacity.
He also spoke of three other PPP projects - multimode surveillance system at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, senior citizen health care and hospitality, and low-cost housing complex in Mirpur.
The five projects would cost over $10 billion for the government, he added.
The other speakers urged the government to give the local businesses the opportunity to get involved with PPP projects and policy framework.
They also requested the government to pass a PPP law and reduce the timeframe for project delivery.
"It would be difficult to bank the PPP projects without passing a law. Having a law on this will attract foreign financiers or investors to participate in the projects, as the law will give them security," said Humayun Ahmed, a director of DCCI.
Saiful Islam, chairman of Western Marine Shipyard, said: "There should be representation of private sector entrepreneurs or business leaders in the government's PPP office to accelerate the projects."
Manzur Ahmed, an adviser to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said it would not be possible to do the big infrastructure projects without recasting the existing PPP policy.
"The existing policy is not investmentfriendly—it should be business-friendly first."
Habibullah N Karim, a former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the lack of trust and confidence between the public and private sector actors are major barriers for PPP.
If this barrier cannot be addressed, no PPP project will succeed, he said.
In response, Abul Kalam Azad, senior secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, said both the public and private sectors would have to come forward to build up trust and confidence among them.
"We will also think how the local private sector's participation can be ensured and increased and how the process time can be reduced," he said.
DCCI President Mohammad Shahjahan Khan and BUILD Chairman Asif Ibrahim also spoke at the event.