UKAS CAN HELP MEET ANNUAL US$36.58 BILLION PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENT TARGET FOR 10MP

By Massita Ahmad

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 26 (Bernama) -- Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nor
Mohamed Yakcop, is confident that the Public Private Partnership Unit (UKAS) can
help fulfill the target of attracting private sector investment of at least
RM115 billion (US$36.58 billion) annually throughout the 10th Malaysia Plan
(10MP).

Speaking to Bernama recently, Nor Mohamed said various methods have and are
being undertaken in this regard, including promoting Malaysia overseas.

"What is important is, we must create a condusive environment from various
aspects, including economic and political, to provide confidence for investors
both at home and from overseas.

He expressed confidence that the target can be met although many countries
globally are still experiencing an economic downturn.

He said UKAS had the capability of meeting the target via among others, the RM20
billion (US$6.36) billion Facilitation Fund allocated as a "tipping point" for
the agency to assist in financing private sector projects.

As a federal agency, UKAS, formed in April 2009, has been given the
responsibility to plan and coordinate Public Private Partnership(PPP)programmes.

The unit was previously instituted as the Privatisation and Private
Finance Initiative (PFI) section under the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), in line
with the need to enhance relations between the public and private sectors to
accelerate the country's economy.

Meanwhile, UKAS Director General Dr Ali Hamsa said the Facilitation Fund alone
is expected to attract private investments of not less than RM150 billion
(US$47.72 billion) for the duration of the 10MP.

"The fund is aimed at closing the private sector viabiity gap for strategic
impact projects and those which provide a big economic spillover effect," he
explained.

He said the work goals of UKAS had become more challenging under the 10MP,
including having to manage 52 high impact projects worth RM62 billion identified
for implementation.

These include seven highways estimated to cost RM19 billion and among which are
the West Coast Expressway, Guthrie- Damansara Expressway, Sungai Dua-Juru
Expressway and Paroi-Senawang-KLIA Expressway.

According to Ali, also involved are two electricity generating plants using coal
and worth about RM7 billion.

He also disclosed that since the Privatisation Policy was introduced in 1983 and
until the middle of this year, a total of 511 public private partnership
projects had been successfully implemented.

He said with privatisation, a total of 113,440 workers had been transfered to
the private sector, with the government having saved capital expenditure of
RM164.23 billion.

Ali also said that as of December 31, 2009, market capitalisation developed by
the private sector had reached RM182.45 billion or 18.25 per cent of the market
capital of Bursa Malaysia.

To ensure transparency, he highlighted, UKAS had provided a information board
through the MyPartnership Portal, which among others, publicises all tenders of
more than RM500,000 either on an open or direct negotiation basis.

The information board is aimed at making it easy for the private sector
especially and for the public in particular, to access information on public
private partnership projects and tenders being put out.

The MyPartnership Portal has been operational for the past two months through
the UKAS wesbite, www.3pu.gov.my.

The information board also features tender advertisments, decisions on tenders,
a flow chart for the approval process of projects and a link to the website of
concession holders.

Ali said among the functions of UKAS is to oversee and evaluate the
implementation of projects under the five development corridors. (US$1=RM3.14)
-- BERNAMA