In this meeting, Mehdi Mahzoon, former Director General of the Office of Roads and Transportation at the Plan and Budget Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (PBO), served as the scientific chair, and Mohsen Rouhani-Nezhad, Head of the Public-Private Partnerships Group of the PBO, delivered speeches presenting their viewpoints.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mehdi Mahzoon, former Director General of the Office of Roads and Transportation at the PBO and the scientific chair of the meeting, noted that public-private partnership in investment has a long-standing history in Iran. He stated: 'The public sector has consistently sought to outsource part of its responsibilities to the private sector. However, in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and following the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the first initiative in this regard was the enactment of a law on the implementation of road and transportation projects through partnerships with banks and other financial institutions—a law that continues to be applied today. Following the enactment of this law, several other laws concerning public-private partnerships have also been enacted.

Mehdi Mahzoon continued: 'In recent years, due to the numerous expert meetings held, expert knowledge in the field of public-private partnerships has significantly improved. As a result, experts increasingly felt the need for a comprehensive law that would encompass various dimensions of public-private partnerships. Accordingly, and following the experts’ request and with the resources available at the PBO at the time, a draft law on public-private partnership was prepared in 2018. This draft was approved by the Civil Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2019 and subsequently submitted to the general assembly of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (ICA), but ultimately, it was never passed into law.

The former Director General of the Office of Roads and Transportation at the Plan and Budget Organization of Iran added: 'Two key points must be considered in drafting the Public-Private Partnership Document. First is the definition of partnership. In such documents, the term is often interpreted as 'divestment' or 'transfer'; however, it is important to note that partnership differs from divestment. Divestment refers to the sale of projects needed by the government, which is fundamentally different from partnership. The second point concerns the term 'private sector,' which must be clearly defined—specifically, what type of entity is being referred to as the private sector?'

As the meeting proceeded, Mohsen Rouhani-Nezhad, Head of the Public-Private Partnerships Group of the PBO and the seminar’s keynote speaker, spoke about the public-private partnership (PPP) model. He stated: 'The main rationale behind the development of PPP methods has been the shift toward result-based management and performance-based contracts. PPP represents a transformation in the rules of the game, addressing issues such as public goods, natural monopoly, and the shift from service production to service provision. PPP is a mechanism through which the public sector utilizes the capacities of the private sector—including expertise, experience, and financial resources—for the delivery of public services such as water and wastewater, transportation, healthcare, education, and more.'

He further elaborated on PPP contracts, explaining: 'A PPP contract is a long-term agreement between the public and private parties for the development or management of public infrastructure and services. Under such contracts, the private party assumes a substantial share of the project’s lifecycle risks and responsibilities. The compensation and benefits received by the private sector are directly linked to the performance of the infrastructure and the efficiency of the services delivered.'

Mohsen Rouhani-Nezhad commented on the program Integrating Public Investment Management (PIM) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP), emphasizing that collaborative projects in Iran should be implemented within the framework of a national infrastructure plan. This plan should define the overall direction for selecting and prioritizing projects from the medium to long term. The plan does not necessarily need to specify a list of projects for future investment; rather, it should provide recommendations such as changes in management approaches, procurement, or regulation of public assets to transform operational methods or guide future reforms across various sectors. A key feature of this plan is the existence of appropriate organizational and institutional capacity within the public sector to manage it, supported by clear, firm, and enforceable commitments.

The Head of the Public-Private Partnerships Group of the PBO also identified several challenges facing public-private partnerships, including economic instability and increased investment risk, uneconomic pricing of infrastructure project outputs, diminished trust of the private sector in fulfilling public sector commitments, reluctance of executive agencies and the absence of self-regulatory mechanisms, lack of reliable frameworks to ensure timely fulfillment of obligations, ineffective and fragmented governance for the development of public-private partnerships, and barriers that the private sector faces in obtaining financing from financial institutions.

He also identified improving the private sector’s business environment for investment in infrastructure projects and the provision of public services, establishing an appropriate and effective framework to ensure the public interest in the use of national resources, and safeguarding the long-term interests of the private sector within the public-private partnership ecosystem as strategic objectives of the PPP Unit of the PBO in this domain.

In the proceedings of the meeting, the experts and specialists expressed their viewpoints and posed their questions.

It is noteworthy that this meeting was held on April 29, 2025, both in-person and virtually, with the participation of national and provincial executive agencies, universities, research centers, and think tanks, at the Hossein Azimi Hall located in the CDRF.