Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of the
Transport and Communications Working Group
10
2036. The proposed strategy presents a comprehensive list of infrastructure projects to be
developed and capacity-expanding measures to be implemented across all prevailing transport
sectors.
Although there have been financial and capacity constraints, projects have been thoroughly
screened and prioritized in the updated master plan. This is an important first step and it is
essential to building further on this firm fundament. Therefore, it is recommended to:
 Establish an enabling legal and institutional framework. The current legal framework for
the development of infrastructure projects is limited to the planning and budgeting phases.
This framework should clarify the legal requirements of project appraisals. Furthermore, it
should also specify technical requirements such as the methodology to be used and the
timing of the appraisal. Finally, the institutional basis must identify those parties responsible
at each stage of the appraisal process.
 Second, the master plan should be applied . These plans must identify future capacity needs
to be based on projects and their respective priorities. Based on these requirements, public
institutions will be able to plan both short and long-term allocation of resources for the
development of future infrastructure projects.
 Finally, in order to address the difficulties related to capacity constraints, close cooperation
with development organizations and private partners is required.
Case study Iran
The Iranian transport project appraisal system is well-developed. Good practices are:
systematically performing projects appraisal and making use of guidelines, the quality review
system and finally (some sort of) monitoring and follow-up activities.
Despite the relatively well-developed appraisal system, some recommendations can be stated:
 A common system of project appraisal in the transport sector should be developed,
detailing the procedures, methodologies and a set of reference parameters (e.g. the discount
rates, the thresholds for IRR) for all the agencies in charge of project planning and financing.
 The starting point for the development of such a framework can be a detailed screening of
the practices currently in place and of the models in use. Such screening could serve as
an analytical basis for further steps.
 The use of CBA should be expanded beyond the focus on financial aspects. The project's
acceptability in terms of economic efficiency and social merit should become standard
practice as well. To this end, the development of CBA guidelines for transport infrastructural
projects would be recommended.
 Furthermore, Stakeholder consultation practices should be enhanced. Stakeholders
involvement reflects the extent to which project appraisal and selection includes the view
and voices of stakeholders external to the public administration, including the wider public