Malaysian public-private partnerships: Risk management in build, lease, maintain and transfer projects

Public-private partnership (PPP) is a tool for infrastructure development in many countries. In Malaysia, the government has been implementing PPP since the 1980s, but the records show that quite a number of PPP projects have failed to achieve their objectives due to the lack of risk management. While such a fact is being challenged, how risk management is practised within the context of PPP projects is being observed. Worldwide, different types of PPP projects exist; however, there is a dearth of literature on risks and risk management for each type of PPP project except for a few. This article reports the risks and risk management for the build, lease, maintain and transfer (BLMT) projects in Malaysia from a study regarding the PPP projects in the health and education sectors. The study employs exploratory sequential research design methodology and data were collected through interviews, followed by a survey. The study concludes that BLMT projects apply risk management; however, the government has transferred most of the risks to the private partner. This is not the initial objective of the PPP as both sides are supposed to share the risks even though it may not be on an equal basis. This finding offers the nature of PPP risk management being practised in Malaysia and could provide useful insight for other countries in areas of practising and governing in improvising the PPP project arrangements.