Kazakhstan - East-West Roads Project (Almaty-Korgos Section) : Western Europe - Western China International

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings of the East-West Roads Project (Almaty-Korgos Section): Western Europe - Western China International Transit Corridor (CAREC - 1b) for Kazakhstan were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was high. Lessons learned and recommendations were as follows: First, participation by the World Bank added value by enforcing structured, systematic approaches to environmental and social management, procurement, contract management, and implementation oversight; similar large-scale transport operations should institutionalize these processes early, pair them with capacity building, and embed them in implementing agencies’ procedures to sustain quality and compliance. Second, support for institutional reform was most effective when non-prescriptive and anchored in strong client ownership; future reforms should continue to prioritize country-led solutions while the World Bank facilitates access to international good practice, as demonstrated by the creation of a national road operator, nationwide tolling to apply user-pays principles and reduce dependence on the state budget, mainstreamed road safety practices, and effective delivery of a public-private partnership (PPP) border crossing; such approaches should be combined with public communication to build user acceptance and with multi-actor coordination to mobilize private capital. Third, project development objectives (PDOs) should be crafted to be specific enough to enable clear outcome measurement yet sufficiently flexible to accommodate scale-up without repeated restructurings; defining PDOs at an appropriate corridor or programmatic level can preserve alignment while allowing efficient use of savings and timely inclusion of additional sections.