Today’s State Government commitment to establish a Market-led Proposals (MLPs) process will unlock private sector innovation to identify new approaches to government service delivery and investment in the Western Australian economy.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA (CCI) has long called for an unsolicited bids framework to be established, particularly for long-term planning and infrastructure projects.
Western Australia has been out of step with the rest of the country with no MLP process, so this policy will bring us in line to harness private sector innovation, expertise and efficiencies outside of normal government competitive processes.
WA industry is the ‘boots on the ground’ that can quickly identify how the State’s planning and economic objectives could be better met. MLPs will ensure industry has a clear and transparent way of approaching the Government to identify unique projects that provide a public good and value for money for Western Australians.
This will improve industry-government collaboration and has the potential to improve the State’s finances, as it removes the need for the Government to use public debt to fund its entire asset investment program.
Today’s announcement will build on the Government’s establishment of Infrastructure WA, which will provide transparency and certainty to industry around the State’s pipeline of works and their timing.
Infrastructure WA gives WA businesses and the community the assurance they need that infrastructure planning will transcend short-term politics and will increase the likelihood of WA projects featuring on the Infrastructure Australia priority list, which is critical to access Federal Government infrastructure funding.
The WA business community strongly welcomes the new market led proposal policy which has long been advocated for by CCI.