THE Covid-19 pandemic has placed additional strain on the government’s financial resources. In such times, it is timely to re-look at privatisation of infrastructure projects as it allows for the reallocation of financial resources for the social sector without straining national coffers.
In tough times, government spending and private sector investment will drive the economy.
Towards this end, infrastructure projects, where a “business case” exists, must be placed to attract private investment in a meaningful manner to drive the economy.
For privatisation to happen, there has to be several tenets in place and there has to be a shift in mindset to inculcate the level of trust between the four primary stakeholders involved in any infrastructure projects.
The four parties are the public, lenders, private sector, who would be the concessionaire, and the government.