Planning of National Transport Infrastructure
In the Islamic Countries
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The first meeting of the COMCEC Transport Working Group, held in March 2013, was on
“Transport Infrastructure Financing Modalities: Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the OIC
Member States”.
Examples of OIC countries that explicitly mention private finance in their NTI plans are
Afghanistan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda.
Involvement of stakeholders
Public consultation is an important element of the NTI process in order to measure user needs,
to assess users’ affordability and to guarantee a smooth implementation. According to the
survey that has been undertaken within the framework of this study, more than half of the OIC
member states indicate that the level of consultation and stakeholder participation in NTI
planning, that involves other sectors other than transport planning institutions, is (very) high.
75% of Academics thought public participation was good. However, more than half of the
surveyed countries stated that there is no legal basis that enforces public consultation.
63% of the surveyed academics and private (or state-owned) institutions indicated that their
participation in the NTI planning process in their countries is high, and all respondents indicated
that they are willing to be more involved in the process.
Time perspectives
Time and timing plays a key role in NTI planning. Time related aspects are distinguished into
four:
 The planning horizon of the national plans;
 Intervals between subsequent editions of the national plans;
 The valuation of distant future versus short term effects via the discount rate;
 The time horizon required or applied in the project appraisal.
The planning horizon of the national plans is 4 to 15 years for most of the OIC countries. Some
countries apply a longer planning horizon, with outliers to 30 years. For non-OIC countries, the
horizons applied are 10 to 20 years with outliers to 5 and to 40 years. Below is a list of OIC
countries and the planning horizons related to specific national plans:
 Afghanistan National Development Strategy 5 years;
 Albania National Transport Strategy 20 years;
 Bangladesh National Skills Development Policy 10 years, Five Year Plan 5 years;
 Comoros Country Strategy Paper 4 years;
 Iraq National Development Strategy (Iraq, 2005) 3 years;
 Malaysia National Land Public Transport Master Plan 8 years, 5 year plans; Vision
Plan 20 years;
 Morocco National Development Plan 4 year;
 Nigeria National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan 30 years;
 Qatar Transport Master Plan 20 years, National Vision 20 years;