A recent mission to Pakistan (10–13 February 2025) marked a significant step in digitalising infrastructure project preparation and assessment in the federal level. The mission successfully validated procurement timelines (for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) modality, and a strong interest was shown to use Source for traditional procurement in the future), engaged key government stakeholders, and identified pilot projects for Source.
Key achievements:
The mission resulted in the validation of timelines for the federal PPP project cycle. Additionally, key project assessment methodologies were approved for digitalisation within Source, including assessments for Project Concept Proposals, Project Qualification Proposals, and Project Proposals, along with Project Development Fund (PDF) and Viability Gap Funding (VGF) application assessments.
Stakeholder engagement:
High-level meetings with key stakeholders resulted in strong support for SOURCE from key stakeholders such as the PPP Authority (P3A), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives (MOPD&SI), Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), Ministry of Finance (MoF), and National Highway Authority (NHA).
Looking ahead:
The mission has opened up future opportunities for continued collaboration, including further integration with government systems and expansion to provincial governments. In addition to the Source implementation at the federal level (currently), and in the province of Sindh (previously), Source will be implemented in the province of Punjab as well.
With the Needs Assessment phase concluded, Source integration in the federal PPP framework has progressed to the Digitalisation Phase whereby a customised Source environment will be delivered to P3A. This will be followed by the Piloting of the platform and final Training and Launch phase.
It is expected that the GoP will benefit immensely by using Source for the preparation and management of federal PPP projects. Source will enable the standardisation of project development and management processes, resulting in a healthy federal PPP pipeline which currently comprises of projects worth approximately PKR 467 Billion under preparation, in addition to executed projects worth approximately PKR 130 Billion.
The overwhelmingly positive government feedback, combined with the identified pilot projects, paves the way for Source to transform infrastructure development in Pakistan by enhancing transparency, efficiency, and digitalisation in procurement processes.