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Several public–private partnership projects in the pipeline: NAPPP 

Chairman of National Agency for Public Private Partnership (NAPPP) Thilan Wijesinghe said yesterday (28), that the NAPPP is looking at public-private partnerships in order to make state-owned entities viable in the country. 

Wijesinghe cited the Kandy Mahaiyawa urban housing project, 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 and a barge mounted power plant as some of the PPP projects in the pipeline. He made these remarks while addressing the 31st Annual Conference of OPA on the theme of ‘Innovative Digitalization’, held at Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel yesterday.

Talking about technological aspects, Wijesinghe said the delay in implementing the Transit Smart Card Project in Sri Lanka is a major concern. 

“Transit Smart Card project has been gravitating among Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) ICTA, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Transport and various other line ministries over the last two and a half years.”

“However, we have thrown our hat into the ring and taken some control of it. What we have today is a brilliant technical solution. But it is sad that there is no idea how this project can be implemented from a financial model perspective,” he said. He also revealed that the NAPPP or any other line ministries currently don’t have a single, tangible , large scale digital infrastructure project that’s under the implementation stage.

He said the government should be essential partners in shaping the transition to new scientific, technological, economic and social framework.

“Subsequently, NAPPP would be able to play a catalytic role in facilitating PPPs in digital infrastructure and act as a leading partner for generating economic productivity,” he said.

Wijesinghe also underscored Sri Lanka's successful track record with regard to the implementation of PPPs with no failed transactions. 

“Also, the government must not over- estimate what it can do,” he said, adding that Sri Lanka has financially closed over USD 5 billion worth of PPP projects in the last 20 years. 

“If you go back to the 1996-2000 era when I was the Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman, that was the time when Sri Lanka embarked on the PPP journey and financially closed almost a USD1 billion worth of PPP projects over a five-year period,” he said.

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