A new sustainable public-private partnership (PPP) procurement system for infrastructure projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In recent years, there has been increasing recognition of the importance of the provision of sustainable infrastructure development, leading to renewed interest in the infrastructure industry. Traditionally, providing infrastructure has been one of the government's responsibilities to its people. Recently, the scope of the infrastructure industry has changed as a result of the evolution of the population's needs and living standards. The massive capital investment required to provide public services or projects, combined with a general shortage in public funds, the complexity of many infrastructure projects and arguments in favour of obtaining value for money have presented significant challenges and limited the capability of some governments to provide the infrastructure utilities required by their citizens. The public-private partnership (PPP) approach to procurement and contracting has shown to have some potential in addressing some of the challenges and emerging requirements. A partnership between the public sector and private sector for the provision of infrastructure projects, under the concept of PPP, can help address the increasing and changing demand of infrastructure utilities, ensuring that high-quality services are supplied to end-users with efficiency and efficacy. This research investigates the current level of understanding of PPP in the KSA and the nature with which it is applied in their projects. The main aim of this research is to develop a sustainable partnership procurement system for infrastructure projects in the KSA based on the PPP procurement approach. Consequently, the study will also identify the most common procurement types applied in the infrastructure industry as well as the positive and negative factors influencing the decision to implement PPP. These include the criteria for selecting the best possible partner, risks and risk allocation in PPP, critical success factors (CSFs), and how to maintain a sustainable PPP procurement system in the KSA. This research study provides a decisive understanding of the implications of a sustainable PPP procurement in KSA infrastructure projects.