Higher and successful PPPs (public-private partnerships) in infrastructure can boost growth, according to a senior bureaucrat.
Delivering the keynote address at a conference on ‘PPP with special reference to infrastructure development, industrialization and tourism’ organised by the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Postgraduate Centre for Management Studies and Research here on Monday, H.A.C. Prasad, Senior Economic Adviser, Union Ministry of Finance, said that one single mantra to push up India’s GDP growth rate would be higher and successful PPPs in infrastructure.
Stating that inadequate supply of infrastructure is affecting growth, he said the PPPs, particularly in infrastructure, gain importance in today’s context.
As per the documents of 12th Plan, private and PPP investments were estimated to have accounted for a little over 30 per cent of total investment in infrastructure in the 11th Plan. “Their share may have to rise to 50 per cent in the 12th Plan,” he said.
The total investment in infrastructure would have to be over Rs 45 lakh crore during the 12th Plan period. Financing this level of investment will require larger outlays from the public sector. But this has to be coupled with a more than proportional rise in private investment, Prasad said.
The ‘private participation in infrastructure’ database of World Bank has placed India in the second position next to China in terms of number of PPP projects. In terms of investments, India is second to Brazil, he said.
Energy, followed by transport, telecom and water and sewerage are the major sectors under PPP in the world, he said.
The Union Government is promoting PPPs as an effective tool for bringing private sector efficiencies in creation of economic and social infrastructure assets and for delivery of quality public services. In the recent years, India has emerged as one of the leading PPP markets in the world due to several policy and institutional initiatives taken by the Central and some State governments, Prasad said.