PM Shehbaz terms transparency as top priority in airports’ outsourcing

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has termed transparency as the topmost priority of government in the process of outsourcing international airports.

Talking to the delegation of Istanbul Grand Airport in Lahore today before the departure of Saudi Arabia, he said that firstly, Pakistan is offering to outsource some commercial operations of Islamabad International Airport under Public Private Partnership.

The Prime Minister revealed that steps are being taken to augment the facilities for passengers at Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore airports.

He said that Pakistan is heading towards economic prosperity very fast and its dependence on public private partnership is also being accelerated.

PM Shehbaz said that there is an enormous potential of investment and partnership in urban development sector.

Welcoming the foreign businessmen and investors from all over the world, he expressed keen interest to promote the investment and partnership from Turkiye. He added that this is the best time for the promotion of business partnership for both countries.

The federal government had earlier decided to outsource the country’s major three airports including Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.

Earlier, it was reported that investors from Germany, France, Netherlands, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Turkiye as well as local groups have shown their interest in outsourcing of three airports of Pakistan.

On March 21, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Thursday extended the bid submission date for outsourcing of Islamabad International Airport

As per details, the decision to extend the tender date came in the wake of a lack of interest from the bidders in the outsourcing of the Airport.

Hereby, the CAA extended the bid submission date for two months to May 15 and applications were sought from the investors who are interested in outsourcing the airports.