Company and project evaluation model for privately promoted infrastructure projects

The decline in government funds and the increased demand on public agencies for the construction of new (or the rehabilitation of existing) infrastructure projects has led to the growth of alternative forms of project development, such as BOT and BOO. The Desirability Model, presented in this paper, is a multiattribute evaluation model that provides a logical, reliable, and consistent procedure for assessing the capability of a private-sector company to become a promoter for a given project and the attractiveness of an infrastructure project to be actively promoted by a given company. The proposed model was developed with the assistance of 14 experts from around the world. It produces two indices (one for company competencies and one for project attractiveness) that depend on the actual performance levels of a total of 23 company and project attributes. The model has been validated by comparing these indices to the experts' holistic evaluations of 19 company and project profiles. Example applications of the model include the evaluation of the Eurotunnel and an illustration of how sensitivity analysis can identify strategies for project improvement.