Planning of National Transport Infrastructure
In the Islamic Countries
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3.5.9. Policy Recommendations
The policy recommendations emanating from the Qatar Case Study are as follows:
Overall Policy Recommendation
An integrated transport, energy and environment policy would be worthwhile and very
progressive. Its objectives would be to decouple transport and energy from the economy
through smart planning and be aligned to the SDGs. Qatar can easily set the stage for other oil
producing states to show that it is perfectly possible for economies to grow – even rapidly - by
consuming less resources.
Communications led transport demand substitution using the internet where ever possible to
minimise mobility while maximising accessibility through online services and also e-
commuting.
Although there maybe an abundance of oil, the use of fossil fuels to provide energy has reached
its zenith. The policy needs to set out how new technology and Artificial Intelligence may be
exploited.
More specific recommendations;
 Opening up for PPP constructions will require level playing field between public and
private parties. This might require providing more information and adding parties to the
present set of stakeholders;
 PPP will lead to new risks in planning and implementation. These risks have to be
mitigated;
 Providing a more prominent role for the pricing mechanism, in view of policies related to
parking, congestion and PPP, will require research and modelling on price elasticities of
demand;
 The predictive models and scenarios need to be robust for external effects and shocks
(global market, competitive position) and systemic risks. When required, expanding the set
of scenario’s and parameters in the models might be useful;
 The models need to be calibrated and the scenarios need to be updated regularly, due to
the fast and massive developments that take place. Models can easily handle marginal
changes, but have difficulties in coping with substantial changes.
 The efforts required to perform proper data collection should not be underestimated.
Academic and commercial entities might play a larger role in data collection and data
analysis. Data availability in the public, commercial or academic sphere could be improved.;
 Monitoring and evaluation processes should further be tested and strengthened, as yet the
focus is on implementation of a large series of mega projects.