Policy gaps under the energy and infrastructure projects: Commercial capacity development in an economically struggling regime

The policy gaps could easily appear in national projects of developing regimes when they lack local policy evidence during the decision and implementation stages toward economic development. We have identified collaborative governance (CG) literature and models as a strategy to bridge the policy gaps during the development of commercial capacities in Pakistan. Although frameworks exist to investigate CG practice for a national endeavor, the emerging nature of CG in a developing regime requires a specific theoretical framework to test the local implications. Therefore, we attempted to establish a new theoretical framework for CG. We have assigned collaboration elements that are more compatible to find out grassroots policy evidence in relation to economic measures from relevant stakeholders. Commercial capacity development depends upon the successful execution of energy and infrastructure portfolios in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The local Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) organizations gave their policy perspectives about the viability and gaps in the existing CPEC policies. The findings depict that collaboration structures are not advanced at all administrative levels in developing countries compared to the developed regimes. Marginalized representation is instrumental in conceptualizing the CG for developing contexts. It could also save the transactional cost and limitations of political and legal nature while exercising the CG in any national project of a developing regime, especially for long-run goals.