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Capacity Building: A Challenge for Globalisation
Stan Kawaguchi, USA

Good afternoon and welcome to this session on "Capacity Building: A Challenge For Globalization". In my travels I have been asked "Why is FIDIC so interested in Capacity Building?" Well, in an attempt to answer that question and to set the stage for this afternoon's Panel presentation on capacity building, please allow me to take you back about four years to the time of FIDIC's adoption of a FIDIC report entitled "Engineering Our Future". This is the same report that many refer to as the "Task Force 21 Report" or TF 21.

Today, TF 21 serves as a guide to FIDIC - some refer to it as the Strategic Plan for FIDIC. Allow me to share with you a few statements from this Report.

In the area of LEADERSHIP, TF 21 states:

— FIDIC must provide leadership.
— FIDIC must be proactive.

In the area of CHANGE, TF 21 states:

— Change is upon us; there is no future in the status quo; our industry must adapt.
— We must move "up the food chain" to a new set of value-added services for our clients.

In the area of SUSTAINABILITY, TF21 states:

— Increasingly, sustainability will become the most important criteria for project acceptability.
— FIDIC must take a major role in sustainable development.

In the area of CORRUPTION TF 21 states:

— Corruption and instability at the political level remain major concerns, affecting efficient project delivery and the health of the industry.
— FIDIC must encourage all consultants to fight corruption and to cooperate with others in this effort.

In the area of BUSINESS INTERESTS TF 21 states:

— Enhance the image of consulting engineers as leaders and wealth creators in society.
— Support the development and advocacy of appropriate tools such as documents, standards, and guidelines facilitating technology transfer and CAPACITY BUILDING.

Subsequent to the adoption of TF 21, your FIDIC leadership established three separate task forces on Sustainable Development, Corruption, and Capacity Building for the purpose of carrying out the ideas contained in the TF 21. By the way, the task force on corruption was renamed the Integrity Management Task Force, this for want of a more "positive" sounding name.

As these task forces moved forward with their work, what became clear was that the work of the three task forces are very much related. Sustainability clearly is a very large future business opportunity area for our industry, if it isn't already so, and is definitely an area that FIDIC should aggressively take a leadership role in.

FIDIC has in fact been doing just that through our FIDIC 2000 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, our FIDIC 2001 meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, FIDIC's recent involvement with an International Forum for the Sustainable Development of Shanghai, and most recently FIDIC's participation in the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

FIDIC has indeed begun to move itself into a recognized leadership role in the World's Sustainable Development movement. However, to progress to the next level of recognition, FIDIC needs to aggressively build capacity in our consulting engineering industry throughout the world. This building of capacity does not mean just basic elementary capacity, but rather the elevating of the private practice of engineering to a level where consulting engineers are recognized by society as "leaders and wealth creators in society".

However, in order to truly build to this level of capacity, we must first eliminate CORRUPTION. The building of true capacity in a corrupt environment is extremely difficult, and without true capacity it will be even more difficult for FIDIC to promote the agenda of SUSTAINABILITY.

In other words, the building of capacity and the fight against corruption in the view of FIDIC's leadership, are inextricably related. Thus, this meeting in Acapulco, FIDIC 2002, has as its theme "INTEGRITY AND CAPACITY BUILDING FOR DEVELOPMENT".

Success in the fight against corruption and the building of true capacity will enable FIDIC to push ahead and solidify its role as a leader in the sustainability arena, thereby elevating the image of our industry as "wealth creators".

My personal view is that this conference in Acapulco should be viewed as the formal launching of the start of full implementation of FIDIC's Task Force 21 Report - Success in the fight against corruption leading to the building of true capacity in our industry worldwide, leading to the assumption of a leadership role in the next large business opportunity of sustainable development, leading to the elevation of the consulting engineer's image.

With that as an introduction to the question of "Why capacity building?", let us now turn to our speakers for this afternoon. The purpose of this session is capacity building, and we are fortunate to have with us three gentlemen who have dealt with various aspects of capacity building.

All of the speakers have agreed to a 40 minute time limit, to include questions and answers on their talk. We will hear from Mr. Lau and Mr. Meghji first, followed by a 30 minute break, after which we will hear from Mr. Ritchie. The final 15 to 20 minutes will be given over to an open question and answer session during which time you may address questions to any of the speakers. I will end this session no later than 1700 hours or sooner in order that all of you may have time to prepare for tonight's Local Color Night event.

— Introduce Mr. Ching-kwong Lau
— Introduce Mr. Rafik Meghji
— Break
— Introduce Mr. John Ritchie
— Open question and answer period
— Summary
— Close & thank you's.