Three years after its enactment, a move has been taken to amend the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act for incorporating a new concept in it facilitating government-to-government (G to G) investment initiatives.
Sources said the amendment to the act had been necessary in the wake of an increase in the PPP Authority's activities centring on PPP projects since its launch under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
Apart from facilitating G to G investment initiatives, they said, the amendment to the law would also give a legal coverage to the executive board which has been working to scrutinise some roles of the PPP Authority.
"The PPP Authority has several roles to play. The executive board helps the authority by scrutinising the guidelines and policies before placing them to the governing board," said an official preferring not to be named.
He said the executive board under the chairmanship of the principal secretary at the PMO was formed at a directive of the Prime Minister during the first meeting of the PPP governing board held in March 2016.
The PM is the chair of the governing board.
Sources said the PPP Authority was facing legal complexities while dealing with the PPP projects which are in progress under the G to G arrangement, as there is no such provision in the PPP Act.
They said the PPP Authority formulated a policy in 2017 to implement PPP projects under the G to G arrangement.
Under the policy the authority signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan on June 15, 2017 to implement seven projects, mostly in the road and railway sectors.
In March this year, it also signed another MoU with Singapore to make investment in urban city development, port management, tourism, etc.
Official sources said the PPP Authority was now working on proposals made by other European and South Asian countries to launch projects under the similar PPP G to G concept.
They said the PPP Authority and the executive board already sat several times to incorporate the changes in the PPP Act after getting clearance from the governing board.
The second meeting of the governing board, held on May 30 with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, directed the authority and the executive board to finalise it.
Sources said several meetings between the PPP Authority and the executive board were held where decisions were taken to hold at least two meetings of the governing board and four meetings of the executive board in a year.
Earlier, six meetings of the governing board were proposed in a year as per the act.
