Development of public infrastructure, which serves as a basis for improving lifestyle quality and boosting economic growth, can be disrupted by public resource limitations. Government cooperation with the private sector via public-private partnerships (PPP), which allows for the joint completion of public infrastructure and provision of services, has therefore become a global trend and a key area of discussion among members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). PPP has been included in the goal and strategy of administration by Executive Yuan and Ministry of Finance to provide sustainable and quality public service for the public. (source: Ministry of Finance website, https://ppp.mof.gov.tw/ppp.engweb#)

In order to promote and incentivize public and private participation for infrastructure projects and also to recognize public and private entities with outstanding performance and contribution to the government’s PPIP Program, Department of PPIP, Ministry of Finance (MOF) has sponsored a platform for evaluating, benchmarking, and recognizing outstanding contributors from both public and private sectors as well as the annual competition and awarding of winners of PPIP Competition in a bid to expand, expedite, and encourage more active participations for government’s PPIP projects from both the public and private sectors and enhance quality of infrastructure projects in the future, to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Teaming up with “Breeze Center Corp. Ltd”, Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH) has entered the 2018 annual Golden Thumb Award for PPIP competition with its ROT (renovation, operations, and transfer) project for the hospitals’ food court and mini shopping mall. After several rounds of rigorous reviews by Golden Thumb Award committee members and independent evaluators, TSGH and Breeze Center were jointly announced winners of the 2018 Golden Thumb Award in public and private sectors respectively. The renovated food court and shopping mall of TSGH is a brand new user-friendly facility that testifies the remarkable success and high quality of infrastructure project if and when public and private sector can team up and create win-win for all stakeholders.

TSGH’s wining of the 2017 annual Golden Thumb for PPIP Award can be attributed to the hospital’s commitment in upholding high standards and maintaining strict enforcement on food sanitation and in hospital infection control protocols as well as the medical center’s solid contract performance evaluation and management processes regarding PPIP projects. TSGH’s PPIP contract with Breeze Center has specifically stipulated that “at least one third of menu will have price tags of less than 100 NTD” and “ensuring same price tags for same food menus throughout all Breeze Center food courts and mini malls within Taipei Municipality”, guidelines designed and implemented to ensure full compliance with PPIP standards. The refurbished TSGH food court and mini mall as a result of partnership between TSGH and Breeze Center under the framework of PPIP project has now offered a high quality venue for shopping, dining, and recreation for patients, hospitals staffs, and the general public.