The origins of Public Private Partnerships

For a number of years, the Qatari Government has indicated a growing interest in adopting Public Private Partnerships (PPP), a procurement structure through which public bodies work in partnership with private companies for procurement and operation of public infrastructure. PPPs enable functions traditionally fulfilled solely by the public sector to be undertaken in collaboration with the private sector. PPPs came to prominence in the UK in the 1990s under the title of Private Finance Initiatives (PFI).Since then reportedly over 1,000 projects worth at least USD 1.5 trillion have been procured using forms of PPP. Additionally fifty countries have established dedicated PPP units at Government level.

Key features of PPPs