Partnerships to enhance services

With limited resources, how can governments fulfil their mandate to improve the lives of their citizens? The answer lies in Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

To that end, Kampala's Serena Hotel will host a PPP conference from September 16 to 18. According to the state minister for finance, Hon Gabriel Ajedra, the Government is already handling some of its projects under the PPP arrangement.

"More emphasis will be on Uganda's infrastructure projects and private sector players will have an opportunity to identify critical infrastructure projects for investment," Ajedra said.

He made the comments during in a pre-launch meeting at Serena Hotel in Kampala recently. The conference will attract more than 50 seasoned infrastructure experts and speakers from different parts of the world, according Beatrice Florah Ikilai, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) Vice Chair Bureau of the working party on PPP.

The conference is organised by UNECE in partnership with the government of Uganda. It will run under the theme; ‘PPPs, Africa's next big thing, in focus: people first principles in support of UN-SDGs.

What is PPP?

A public-private partnership, also called a PPP, is a long-term cooperative agreement between a private company and the national or local government, according to the Business Market news.

It also states that public-private partnership arrangements have existed throughout history, but have become significantly more popular across the globe since the 1980s as governments attempt to obtain some benefits from the private sector without having to make the full privatisation jump.

In a PPP arrangement, private companies carry out aspects of government work. "A public-private partnership (PPP) is a long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility and remuneration is linked to performance," according to Business Market news.

According to Tech Target, PPP is a broad term that can be applied to anything from a simple, short term management contract (with or without investment requirements) to a long-term contract that includes funding, planning, building, operation, maintenance and divestiture. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THIS 

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