Infrastructure Public–Private Partnerships in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar with infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs), and offers new insights into the development of the PPP phenomenon outside of the Western context. It analyzes their approaches to PPPs, including policy frameworks, the rationales for their implementation, and presents a critical examination of PPP projects’ development to date. In contrast to the international trend where PPPs have been used for the objectives of overcoming financial constraints or delivering public infrastructure efficiently, it is argued that PPPs in the three Gulf states are in their infancy, and their use has been restricted to sectors where the governments cannot deliver important projects. The article concludes by identifying the three Gulf states’ future directions in the use of infrastructure PPPs to deliver a broader spectrum of mega-infrastructure projects, particularly in light of dwindling oil revenues.

Barriers to the implementation of public-private partnerships in the healthcare sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…Our findings related to the legal barrier agree with those of other studies that have showed that the lack of adequate legal and regulatory frameworks pose a challenge to the successful implementation of PPPs [9,[56][57][58]. A stable regulatory framework that can be easily enforced is essential.…”

“…It is suggested that a lack of professionals with the right experience and skills and project-preparation capacity are obstacles to the successful implementation of PPPs [61,62]. Similar results were obtained in other PPP studies in Kuwait and Qatar [58]. It is, therefore, recommended that the government should draw on the experience and skills of professionals in developed economies to build and structure its PPPs and, thus, make such projects more attractive to the private sector [63].…”

The Prospect of Infrastructure Public‐Private Partnerships in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

“…The absence of a publicly centered decision‐making structure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar casts the “public” component of PPPs in a dubious light. Given the concentration of political and economic decision‐making among a small number of political elites and other senior government officials, PPPs might better be referred to as “government‐private partnerships.” In Kuwait, however, PPP law stipulates that 50% of the shares of the awarded project company must be accessible to Kuwait citizens through an initial public offering (Biygautane, forthcoming). Nonetheless, restricting these shares to Kuwaitis alone discriminates against expatriates, who form the largest portion of “the public” and who could also contribute to the local share market.…”

“…In this type of PPP, the government operates as a single buyer of electricity and water generated by a private sector company through fixed‐term power and water purchase agreements (Deloitte, ). Foreign companies’ hesitation to tackle the high risks associated with investing huge amounts of capital in the GCC region, and their preference for dealing with the government as a single buyer is evident from the restriction of PPPs to only one low‐risk industry (Biygautane, forthcoming).…”

“…Modern governments are invariably under pressure to reform their public sectors, which are often described as inefficient and unresponsive to their citizens’ growing needs (Grossman, ; Sabry, ). Since the 1980s, the public administration literature has witnessed a mounting interest in public management reform and introduction of public‐private partnerships (PPPs) as an infrastructure delivery mechanism, particularly within the Anglo‐Saxon context (Biygautane, forthcoming; Hodge & Greve, ; Pollitt, ). However, the experiences of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which comprise Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, are often overlooked by international business and public administration scholars (Akoum, ; Goldsmith & Al‐Yahya, ).…”