W.Mapurisa (H210025B)
F.ABINAL (H210018V)
S. Kasenye. (H210022Y)
Critically assess Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs) as innovative arrangements for
transferring science and technology for meaningful sustainable and responsible
innovative processes and products in Zimbabwe.
(100 marks)
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Zimbabwe has been characterised by a continuous deterioration in existing public service due to the,
more than decade-long, economic downturn.
The Government of Zimbabwe, parastatals and local authorities tasked with provision of utility
services and critical public infrastructure lack capacity to sustain the facilities in sound state and
cope with the growing demand for efficient service delivery.
The fundamental challenge for Zimbabwe is to urgently restore its infrastructural base. The
government is saddled with a bankrupt national airline, a struggling power utility, an inefficient
railway company, a poor performing coal mine, an idle steel plant, under-utilised dams, massive
looting of natural resources in the country among others.
The Government of Zimbabwe has taken a policy position to adopt public-private partnerships
(PPPs) under which the private sector would partner Government to deliver public services for
example infrastructure development projects, exploit natural resources etc.
These PPPs project are also playing as tool ensure knowledge transfer from private to pubic
instututions and also between universities-government-private institutions.
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Private-Public Partnerships:
The term ‘public-private partnership’ (PPP) has been described mainly from
contractual and institutional perspectives, thus it is important to contextualize the
PPP, given that the term has been understood differently(Hall, 2008) .
Witters et al. (2012) describe a PPP as a relationship in which public and private
resources are blended to achieve a goal or set of goals deemed to be reciprocally
beneficial both to the private entity and to the public.
Sedjari (2004) argues that a PPP is a new cultural phenomenon by itself and
defines it as an “a culture of engagement…a capacity for the collective
mobilization of participants which now forms the substance and strength of public
programmes…”
According to Nijkamp et al. (2002), a PPP is an institutionalized form of
cooperation of public and private actors, who on the basis of their own indigenous
objectives, work together towards a joint target.
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According to the United Nations (UN), PPPs ‘are voluntary and collaborative
relationships between various
parties, both public and non-public, in which all
participants agree to work together to achieve a common purpose or undertake a
specific task and, as mutually agreed, to share risks and responsibilities, resources and
benefits’ (UN General Assembly, 2006, p. 3)
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Public Private Partnership- institutional relations involving the state and the private
for-profit and/or the private not
for- profit sector, whereby the different public and
private actors jointly participate in defining the objectives, the
implementation of an agreement of cooperation (Maturure, 2015).
techniques and the
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“Technology transfer” is the process by which commercial technology is disseminated. This takes the
form of a technology transfer transaction, which may or may not be covered by a legally binding contract
(Blakeney, 1989,p. 136), but which involves the communication, by the transferor, of the relevant
knowledge to the recipient. (United Nations, 2001)
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A process of applying known technologies to new and novel applications (Lane, 2017)
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"Assignment of technological intellectual property, developed and generated in one place, to another
through legal means such as technology licensing or franchising"; or
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"the process of skill transferring, knowledge,
technologies, methods of manufacturing, samples of
manufacturing and facilities among governments and other institutions to ensure that scientific and
technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users who can then further develop and
exploit the technology into new products, processes, applications, materials or services."
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The idea of PPPs was first mooted in 1998. In 2004, the Ministry of Finance
attempted to come up with the PPP framework investment. This was
outlined in the Public Private Partnership in Zimbabwe Policy and
Guidelines of 2004.
The guidelines tried to provide the parameters for the development of an
appropriate legal and regulatory framework to protect investors and
consumers (Dube and Chigumira 2011). However, the guidelines did not
take off notably.
There were three projects involving PPP, namely Beitbridge Bulawayo
Railway (BBR), the New Limpopo Bridge (NLB) and the Newlands By-Pass
(NBP) (ZNCC 2009).
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Innovation risks sharing
Some researches done have reiterated that risks are inevitable in
the development and commercialization of Innovations. Under a
legal construction of PPPS Theory, the partners share risk,
reward, and responsibility for a shared investment (Akkawi,
2010).
PPPs are therefore not merely equipment for projects funding they call for full dedication from all parties involved to ensure
minimum risks prevail.
Risks that includes the risk of such PPPs to the environment,
society, and economically risk free.
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Facilitating commercialization of innovations
According to Witters et al., (2012), the PPP legal construction can cover three types of
arrangements, and these go a long way in facilitating commercialization of innovations.
“...first, it can be used to introduce private-sector ownership into state-owned businesses
through a public listing or the introduction of an equity partner.
Second, it can become a private finance initiative, where the government takes advantage
of private-sector management skills by awarding long-term franchises to a private-sector
partner, which assumes the responsibility for constructing and maintaining the
infrastructure and for providing the public service.
Third, it can cover the selling of government services to private-sector partners, which can
better exploit the commercial potential of public assets. In these three arrangements, the
private-sector consortium typically forms a special company, called a ‘special purpose
vehicle’ (SPV) - to develop, build, maintain, and operate the assets for the contracted
period. In cases where the government has invested in the project, it is usually - but not
always - allotted an equity share in the SPV...” Witters et al. (2012: 81).
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It is important to note that by exposing the innovations invented
in the public research institutes to competitive tendering, PPP’s
enable the quality and cost of such Innovations' to be
benchmarked against the prevailing sustainable international
standards like the GDGs, thereby helping to secure efficiency
improvements within the economy as a whole.
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The PPPs initiative represents an alternative way of delivering better
public services and facilities. A characteristic of PPP model is the
transfer of liability of design, build, finance and the operation of a
public facility or service from the public sector client to the private
sector for a period of 25- 30 years.
The PPP model involves the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle
(SPV) to work in partnership with the public sector client to deliver a
service or facility to the public. The long term service delivery nature
of PPP projects demand contractors, as service providers, think like
the project owners while the public client has the responsibility of
developing, executing and delivering the service improvement.
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Unlike traditional procurement, PPP procurement involves the continuous
participation of client and service providers at all levels and across a wide
range of disciplines and external technical advisors (Carrillo et al. 2008).
Thus the success of the PPP project depends to a great extent on the
effective communication of experience, expertise and skills of all
stakeholders involved in the project.
This is more so as PPP is a relatively new procurement process and
practitioners are continuously learning from the experience. Within the
extant literature, a large number of articles, research findings and debates
on various aspects of PPP initiatives’ achievements and shortcomings have
been published (National Audit Office 2009, Carrillo et al. 2008, Li and
Akintoye 2003).
Although PPPs are often associated with providing an environment that is
favourable to innovation and improving practices, several researches have
highlighted the inefficiencies of the PPP scheme.
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The significance of communication and information sharing for better
performance of PPP projects. Although knowledge transfer problems
do exist in all these projects, the problems are further drawn-out by
the complexity of procuring and delivering PPP projects (Robinson
and Scott 2009, Carrillo et al. 2008).
Carrillo et al. (2006) pointed out that a major concern was the number
of stakeholders involved in projects, the complexity of PPP structure
and the several stages involved in procuring a PPP project.
They highlighted the challenge of successfully transferring
knowledge and experience to other relevant stakeholders in order to
facilitate innovation.
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Carrillo et al also suggested as a solution, the introduction of
appropriate mechanisms and processes for capturing and transferring
the knowledge and expertise from one context to another.
Furthermore, due to the long term service delivery and the
continuous improvement implications for the PPP project, mistakes
made as a result of a lack of expertise, skills and experience can be
critical in an increasingly complex and evolving environment.
Compared with other projects, payment for PPP projects depend
crucially on performance monitoring to ensure that service delivery is
in accordance with the output specification (Robinson and Scott
2009). However, the effectiveness of performance monitoring and
output specification depends on an effective knowledge transfer
among the key stakeholders.
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PPPs model helps firms overcome various barriers to innovation,
PPPs can contribute to the development of industrial processes,
products, and services that might not otherwise be possible
without the involvement of the government in one way or the
other.
Through PPP, governments can also influence the direction of
investments and innovation towards more socially,
environmental friendly relevant sectors of the economy, and
achieve a much needed innovation policy goal of linking
research carried out in public organisations to the activities of
the productive sector in a sustanaible manner.
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Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), are instrumental in making consumption and
production more sustainable. There are numerous examples of new technologies,
processes, services and business models that are re-shaping product life cycles from design
through production and usage to disposal and recycling. Businesses across the region have
invested extensively in this direction.
Yet, there is only so much that the private sector can do on its own to bring about a
systemic transition. Partnerships among governments, the private sector and civil society
are often useful to explore new regulatory models and co-ordinate different economic
activities that enable ssustainable use of scarce resources.
For example the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) is advocating
for People First Public-Private Partnerships, exploring new ideas and arrangements to
increase access to essential services, lessen social inequalities and preserve the
environment while transforming the economy.
To fully realise the potential of innovation and partnerships requires dedicated and
sustained policy efforts to create the right enabling frameworks and incentives. Policy
interventions include standards, labelling systems, procurement policy, regulatory
innovation, platforms and technical and financial support to sustanaible and responsible
nnovations.
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The shareholders of a company called New Limpopo Bridge (PVT) Limited (NLB) identified the potential in building a new bridge over
the Limpopo. The governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa welcomed the initiative.
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The New Limpopo Bridge (NLB) project was one of the first Build Operate Transfer (BOT) projects in Africa. NLB ltd entered into a 20
year concession agreement with the Governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa and provided funding for construction of the Bridge
project. The bridge was completed in 13 months.
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The bridge provides an essential link with strategic importance. It promotes trade and development primarily between Zimbabwe and
South Africa but also facilitates trade between South Africa and other LLDCs namely Zambia and Malawi, and other developing
countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania.
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Shareholders in the project included an Israeli consortium who were the main developers, Old Mutual, Ned bank and Sanlam Bank.
The project became the first Southern Africa Public-Private Partnership to reach the BOT transfer stage and is now under the
ownership of the Zimbabwean Government after the BOT agreement expired in mid-2014. It was transferred at no cost to the
Government.