National Agency for Public-Private Partnership no more
Sri Lanka’s National Agency for Public-Private Partnership (NAPPP) operated as a unit of the Ministry of Finance with World Bank assistance is to be disbanded shortly by the new government.
The NAPP headed by Thilan Wijesinghe, former Board of Investment Chairman and business professional with 20 member staff, will be wound up after over two years in existence, official sources said.
According to the cabinet paper presented by Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this unit is no longer necessary since the government is taking action to streamline its activities and consolidate functions.
The cabinet has approved the proposal recently to close down the operations of the agency established by the previous regime in 2017 to fast-track Sri Lanka’s economic development agenda .
The World Bank had financed the provision of recommendations and carrying out of capacity-building activities on the PPP legal and regulatory framework including on PPP-related guidelines.
It has also funded the organisational structure of the NAPPP, its staffing and knowledge building and management, and the development of tools for the prioritisation of possible PPP transactions and for the assessment of their level of readiness.
The total commitment of the World Bank facility was around US$25 million for the whole project and out of it a sum of $0.29 million had been disbursed last year and the allocation for this year is $2.94 million, official data revealed.
Its ‘Project Development Objective’ was to support the preparation of Public-Private Partnerships that will enable the Government of Sri Lanka to facilitate private sector financing for the development of its priority infrastructure and services.
Sri Lanka is implementing seven PPP projects worth $1,231 million including Kandy Mahaiyawa Urban Housing Project, Gampaha waste water collection, treatment and disposal system, new inland water transport system, Port city tunnel, recreational beach area development Colombo south, sea water desalination in Puttalam District and the elevated express way from Kelani bridge.
The Pettah Multimodel Hub, Ekala Aero City Project, Convention Centre Port City, Medical Complex port city, School at Port City, Dedduwa integrated tourism development project, Colombo Port cruise terminal, renewable energy park in Pooneryn, are some of the PPP projects in the pipeline in the country.