Evaluation Framework of Seaports' Competitiveness Increasing Projects

The subject of research in this article is evaluation methods of seaport's competitiveness increasing investment projects. This paper develops evaluation framework for assessing investment projects through all the stages: since determining the need for investment to post-evaluation of the impact made. In the course of the analysis on the investment projects evaluation models the systematic, comparative and logical analysis of the scientific literature has been employed. The theoretical data processing method has been used to summarize and present conclusions and recommendations. It starts with the hypothesis that project evaluation holistic framework suggested by Zidane could be used for assessment of the competitiveness increasing projects in seaports. The article concluded that analysed holistic framework after its adoption and extension is suitable for evaluation of competitiveness increasing projects. The developed investment project evaluation framework can be used both in private and public seaports. It enables the decision makers to correctly assess the situation, the need for investments, the total amount of the capital needed, the implementation timeframe and project scale in accordance with investment project relevance; determine the payback period, cash flows and social welfare generated by the project, their net present value, IRR and discounted payback period. The model also enables to assess additional factors impacting on investment criteria: the effect of inflation on the cost of capital; working capital requirements; taxation; risk and uncertainty. Ex-post BCA allows learning about the accuracy and efficacy of ex-ante BCA and if the purpose of the project was reached in order to better the evaluation technique for future investment projects.