COMMONWEALTH members such as Ghana and Kenya want to learn best practices for public-private partnership (PPP) from Malaysia.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa said Malaysia was willing to encourage and help the African nations in adopting the best practices to spur their economic growth.
“Most of these countries have infrastructure problems and it may not be easy to adopt the best practices, as we need to look at their economic capacity. But, I believe this can be done.”
Under the PPP initiative, Malaysia has implemented more than 600 projects worth RM182 billion, including the federal administrative capital here, Kuala Lumpur International Airport and North-South Expressway.
“PPP is instrumental in accelerating growth and economic development, and Ghana is looking at developing its infrastructure and reducing public expenditure,” said Ali, adding that the countries had shown an interest in the initiative to boost private-sector participation back home.
He said Malaysia was keen on collaborating with Commonwealth partners to establish a PPP Commonwealth Centre of Excellence.
“This centre will be the platform for the exchanging of ideas and experience on PPP efforts that can be undertaken by other countries, and allow the best practices to be shared.”
Ali, who was unanimously elected as Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (Capam) president for the 2014-2016 term, chaired its board of directors meeting yesterday.
The Capam Biennial Conference 2014, with the theme “Public Service Transformation: A New Conversation”, began on Sunday and ends today.
Some 1,000 participants from 53 Commonwealth countries and international organisations, such as the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme, attended the conference.