Arabian Business reported that Dubai's Road & Transport Authority will seek private funding for almost a third of its infrastructure projects over the next 5 years.

Mr Abdul Younes CEO for strategy and corporate governance at RTA said that some 30% of deals will be offered as public private partnerships. He added that "Around 30% of projects over the next five years will be tendered as PPPs. For the public sector, this means new funds are available to develop infrastructure, and the private sector is usually more efficient in terms of management and maintaining assets. There is also more flexibility and room for innovation."

He said that projects in the pipeline that will be offered out for private sector involvement include a number of marine stations and multi-storey car parks planned for the emirate. The RTA is also mulling the privatization of its water taxi services.

He added that "We have three main modes of marine transport in Dubai including water taxis, water buses and ferries. We bought these already, but we need the private sector to operate them. We may provide the opportunity for the private sector to build more stations for marine transport systems through PPPs, because for some of them there are no stations. We also have multi storey car parks to be built across 9 or 10 locations throughout the city. The contracts will be tendered and awarded later this year."

The RTA is tasked with ensuring Dubai's infrastructure keeps pace with the emirate’s rapid growth. The state backed agency saw a number of projects slow after the financial crisis, as it struggled to pay trade creditors.

In August 2010, technical services firm Aecom said that it was owed a not insignificant amount of money from the RTA on completed projects.

Mr David Barwell Middle East chief executive for technical support provider Aecom said that "There's still money outstanding, we do get paid but it comes in dribs and drabs. We’re now starting to see a bit more consistent pay. In total we do have some quite high outstanding. It’s not an insignificant amount of money. It certainly won't all be paid in the next 12 months."

In the longer term, Mr Younes confirmed that both the Sheikh Rashid Bridge and the Dubai Smile, which will replace the existing floating bridge, would also be tendered as PPPs after 2014.

(Sourced from www.arabianbusiness.com)