Alrai - The Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Investment, during a meeting held yesterday headed by Deputy Khair Abu Sailik, began discussing the draft law on public-private partnerships for the year 2019.

Abu Sailik, in the presence of Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tariq Al-Hamouri and head of the Public Private Partnership Program Mahmoud Khashman, said that the purpose of the draft law is to improve it and remove all distortions that are taking place on the ground, with the aim of increasing the size of projects and promoting economic growth and creating an attractive and stimulating investment environment for the private sector .

In turn, Al-Hamouri said that the government is seeking to enhance the partnership between the public and private sectors, which is a necessity to achieve development programs, noting that the project will apply global best practices in framing and facilitating the building of real partnerships, as well as not straining the government treasury and providing an increase in the efficiency of infrastructure in the Kingdom.

For his part, Khashman said that the fundamental changes in the draft law fall within the framework of organizing work between the two sectors, and building and managing partnership projects in a sound way, adding that a special account has been created to develop the partnership funded by several countries.

The reasons for the draft law, which consists of 22 articles, stated that the law came to adopt international best practices in framing and facilitating the building of real partnerships between the public and private sectors.

The bill also aims, according to its positive reasons, to create projects that provide distinguished services to citizens and provide the public sector with added value for money in those projects.

According to the draft law, a unit for partnership projects between the public and private sectors linked to the Prime Minister will be established and will assume several functions, among them: Assisting government agencies in identifying potential partnership projects and prioritizing them and preparing proposals.

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