Driver Trett Digest Issue 22 October 2021 - Flipbook - Page 18
the Kingdom has actively been progressing twelve solar IPPs
at a total of 3.3GW and it is expected that round four will
be launched later this year. The success of the programme
and the speed of its roll-out is due to the establishment
of a transparent and trusted procurement process, an
experienced team in the Kingdom’s Renewable Energy
Project Development Office (REPDO) and the creation of a
bankable suite of precedent project agreements, whilst the
Ministry and REPDO continue to strive to improve round on
round to achieve the best results for the Kingdom, both in
terms of price as well as confidence in the developers to
deliver each of the projects.
HEALTHCARE
The Kingdom’s healthcare sector’s key priorities as set out in
the National Transformation Plan and the privatisation plan
revolve around privatising government healthcare services,
increasing PPP healthcare delivery models, scaling up
medical education, training its local workforce, and boosting
the adoption of digital information systems. The Ministry of
Health (MOH) has 20 clusters providing healthcare services
across the Kingdom and intends transferring responsibility
for healthcare provision to a network of new entities.
Under this structure, hospitals and health centres will be
separated from the MOH and be standalone entities or
groups - “clusters”, competing with each other and private
sector operators. Most of the service provision is public
sector but with the stated aim of enhancing the role of the
private sector from currently 25% to 30%. The sector has
been slower than others in progressing a PPP programme.
The Al Ansar Hospital project (a 244-bed new hospital in
the Al-Masjid Al Nabawi area) recently came to market and
attracted 87 expressions of interest from both locally based
and international service providers/consortia. The project is
in progress with an initial list of 9 bidders.
As well as new hospital projects, there are also opportunities
for private sector involvement in providing specialist services
dealing with, for example diabetes and obesity. Models here
have included upgrading primary care facilities in various
locations under a PPP arrangement and training MOH clinical
staff in the services (adopting the private sector methodology
of service provision) based on an expected throughput of
patients and working to KPIs.
EDUCATION
The Kingdom has over 38,000 schools with around 80% being
funded publicly. The development of the schools programme
is under the auspices of the Tatweer Building Company (a PIF
owned entity) and the first schools PPP for 60 schools in Jeddah
and Makkah achieved financial close in November 2020. Wave
two is under way with the procurement of 60 schools in Medina.
The Kingdom plans to procure up to 4,000 schools as part of
Vision 2030. The PPP design, build, maintain, and transfer
structure and project documents adopt an internationally
recognised approach which will no doubt be further
developed through waves two and three of the programme.
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TRANSPORT
In the last 10 years the Kingdom has invested over US$100bn
in transport, a trend which is set to continue and even
accelerate, very much with the assistance of the private
sector. All the traditional transport modes – rail, road,
ports, aviation – will see a piece of the action and some of
the schemes are eye catching in terms of their scale and
ambition. For example, the Land Bridge project is a US$7bn
railway linking the Red Sea with the Arabian Gulf via Riyadh,
and if we head East to Bahrain the procurement of the
US$3.5 billion causeway project is also underway. The Saudi
Ports Authority has plans to develop eight new ports, new
toll roads are planned, and there are also plans to privatise
airports. In addition, some of the Giga-projects (Neom and
the Red Sea Project) are promoting cutting edge transport
as a service approach, developing new ways travellers and
communities will benefit from transport provision.
PPPs in KSA are taking root with more
project opportunities expected to come to
market in a range of sectors.
Market interest also appears buoyant with one project
recently attracting over 80 expressions of interest.
As the Kingdom marches on with progressing Vision 2030,
PPPs will have a significant role to play in achieving those
goals.