With Bangladesh placed at the crossroads of a highly potent e-Government revolution, various innovative
approaches and strategies need to be taken in order to overcome the challenges that were identified in
previous sections. Private sector involvement through PPPs
can be one such arrangement which can be transported from other sectors and adapted to the needs of e-government projects to particularly address the
managerial and financial challenges involved in sustaining these initiatives.
Due to the noticeable increase in GoB focus towards e-citizen services, it can even be argued that the
expertise of private players - who have greater experience and efficiency in service delivery, marketing,
customer relationship management and innovative distribution systems - is critical to realize e-Government
projects successfully and take services to customers, i.e. the citizens.
While there can be various ways of defining PPPs, and significant ambiguity as to what does and does not
constitute a PPP , UNESCO defines public-private partnerships as "a cooperative venture between public
[government] and private [business or NGO] sectors built upon the strengths of each partner that best meets
clearly defined public needs through the appropriate allocation of resources, risks and awards" . Through
PPPs, services traditionally delivered by the public entity are provided largely by private entity under a set of
terms and conditions well defined at the outset . This can be a sufficient definition for PPPs in e-
Government, whereby PPPs can enable provision of government e-citizen services by a private partner, often
in return for a service fee. It is important to note that in most cases, internal process automations of public
sector entities are not appropriate for PPP projects due to a lack of external sources of revenue. Various forms
of PPPs have been utilized globally in providing traditional government services and are being explored for e-
Government.
One key feature that distinguishes PPPs is that the private entity does not have a guaranteed profit from a
project, and shares some of the risks of implementing the project, rather than getting paid regardless of
project success as in the case of ordinary procurement . This attribute is particularly well-suited to egovernment
projects, which are typically avoided by governments because they are deemed to be riskier than
traditional development projects. With the private sector undertaking much of the risk burden, and having a
financial stake in making the project sustainable, governments can be more confident to undertake such
projects.
approaches and strategies need to be taken in order to overcome the challenges that were identified in
previous sections. Private sector involvement through PPPs
can be one such arrangement which can be transported from other sectors and adapted to the needs of e-government projects to particularly address the
managerial and financial challenges involved in sustaining these initiatives.
Due to the noticeable increase in GoB focus towards e-citizen services, it can even be argued that the
expertise of private players - who have greater experience and efficiency in service delivery, marketing,
customer relationship management and innovative distribution systems - is critical to realize e-Government
projects successfully and take services to customers, i.e. the citizens.
While there can be various ways of defining PPPs, and significant ambiguity as to what does and does not
constitute a PPP , UNESCO defines public-private partnerships as "a cooperative venture between public
[government] and private [business or NGO] sectors built upon the strengths of each partner that best meets
clearly defined public needs through the appropriate allocation of resources, risks and awards" . Through
PPPs, services traditionally delivered by the public entity are provided largely by private entity under a set of
terms and conditions well defined at the outset . This can be a sufficient definition for PPPs in e-
Government, whereby PPPs can enable provision of government e-citizen services by a private partner, often
in return for a service fee. It is important to note that in most cases, internal process automations of public
sector entities are not appropriate for PPP projects due to a lack of external sources of revenue. Various forms
of PPPs have been utilized globally in providing traditional government services and are being explored for e-
Government.
One key feature that distinguishes PPPs is that the private entity does not have a guaranteed profit from a
project, and shares some of the risks of implementing the project, rather than getting paid regardless of
project success as in the case of ordinary procurement . This attribute is particularly well-suited to egovernment
projects, which are typically avoided by governments because they are deemed to be riskier than
traditional development projects. With the private sector undertaking much of the risk burden, and having a
financial stake in making the project sustainable, governments can be more confident to undertake such
projects.
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