Challenges Facing BOT Strategy Adoption in the Palestinian Water and Energy Sectors

Abstract

Global experiences prove that public-private partnership strategies and build-operate-transfer (BOT)in particular, can provide a reliable alternative funding sources, particularly for developing countries with budget deficits that cannot meet public needs. It is observed that, though many best practices were evolved, but yet a lot should be done to develop an integral system to that. Conclusions of previous research reveals that, rational flexibility from all parties will enable enforcing collaborative solutions to BOT risks. To adopt such strategy in Palestine, this requires accurate identification and consideration of general challenges and those specific to Palestine. A questionnaire comprising 55 challenges classified into six categories was administered to key actor-respondents who rated the influence of those challenges. SPSS analysis shows that political and legal challenges were strongest considerations. To build a model of best practices to BOT adoption, we recommend establishing a public corporation to finance BOT projects and further advise the Palestinian government to establish a BOT unit attached to the prime ministers’ office to manage, handle and develop the implementation of this such a strategy. However, such efforts may not succeed if restrictions enforced by the long-term belligerent Israeli occupation persists; these undoubtedly constitute the largest obstacle to Palestine’s development.