PUTRAJAYA, Sept 9 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim emphasised today that workers must be given equal priority in all future public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

He made this statement during the launch of the new PPP Masterplan, which aims to attract more investments.

Since 2009, PPPs have attracted over RM50 billion in private investments. However, Anwar noted that these collaborations often overlook the well-being of the workers who are integral to the success of these projects.

"As finance minister, I take pride when companies like Telekom Malaysia or Tenaga Nasional Berhad report profits, as it alleviates the government’s financial burden,” Anwar said in his speech at the Pikas Master Plan 2030 launch.

"But I often ask, what about the pay of TNB and Telekom workers, especially those at the lower level because we know at the top level their salaries are always going up. Secondly, I asked what about their housing?”

Public-private collaborations became one of the hallmark policies of the Najib administration as a way to finance huge infrastructure projects by pushing some of the cost to the private sector.

Subsequent administrations have continued to adopt the policy and some of the PPP projects have been successful in birthing profitable corporations, such as the North-South Highway and the KL Sentral transport hub.

But over the years the public-private partnership model had come under scrutiny following a series of failed projects that were often blamed on financial mismanagement and corruption.

Anwar said Pikas 30 is meant to tighten governance around PPP, in line with his administration’s push to plug leakages and weed out corruption.

"We know many of these PPP projects are executed with strict compliance. But there are some that are not and show weaknesses because they are not done according to the set framework,” the prime minister said.

Anwar then said there is a growing tendency by government enterprises to deviate from the fundamental philosophy of the public-private partnership model that puts emphasis on socio-economic wellbeing, and just focus only on profits.

"We cannot talk about privatisation, and today the PPP, make profit but then push away your responsibility to build homes (for your workers) to the government. How profit is viewed (in PPPs) cannot be seen within the framework of private businesses,” he said.

Under Pikas 30, the Anwar administration will aim to raise investments for PPP projects to RM80 billion by 2030.