PPP model is a light at the end of a tunnel

PAPUA New Guinea is a country made up of a very rugged terrain, high rainfall and far flung islands, which make transport and the building and maintenance of transport infrastructures a daunting task.
With the recent announcement by the government for a Public Private Partnership (PPP) investment model on vital infrastructures in the country, at least there is light at the end of the tunnel.
A PPP Investment model is good, particularly in providing the capacity where the government lacks capacity in delivering vital infrastructures in the building, civil and bridge sectors.
The investment model is already in use as shown by the development of infrastructures like the Koki Fish Market and the APEC Haus which are funded by Kutubu tax credit scheme funds via Oil Search Limited.
In the notion of a PPP investment model, the qualifying private sector investor partner is one that is flagged for tax credit by the government under acceptable conditions expressed in an application notifying the government of the need to be self-reliant in providing road, bridges and building infrastructures to support its operations and that of the social and economic benefit of the impact community.
To put things into perspective, a tax credit scheme automatically accompanies a PPP investment model in the notion that a qualified tax credit scheme is also qualified for a PPP investment model.
However, there are instances where the guarantees to qualify for tax credit schemes are not observed well in the PPP investment model.
Whilst a private partner qualify for tax credit scheme because of the need to provide vital infrastructures in its vicinity of operations, there are instances where the private partner is required to support infrastructures outside of its inherent guaranteeing conditions.
The Kutubu access road in the Southern Highlands for instance supports the operations of a number of large private companies like Oil Search and ExxonMobil but it has been neglected at times resulting in a lot of engineering risks to a state that it can no longer sustain its structural purpose of supporting operations of the private companies and the social and economic benefits of the impact districts and province.
Such flaws calls for a better coordination of the PPP investment model to ensure that the bureaucratic red tape speak volumes at the receiving end and is fair and reliable to all stakeholders.
It should be altered to ensure that the private sector investment is made where the mouth is.
The private sector organisations who qualify for the PPP Investment Model should prioritise on investing in the precincts that had guaranteed their tax credit rather than investing the tax credits on an ad hoc basis which is largely inefficient and ineffective for the primary purpose.
I hope that the announcement by the Prime Minister to get private companies to invest on infrastructures that supports their operations will perhaps improve the PPP investment model as well as improve the whole purpose of the tax credit schemes.

Mike H, Via email