Budapest 2006 conference takes shape
[full item: 78Ac]
 Keynote
speakers from Europe, Asia and the Middle East at the action packed 2006
International Consulting Engineering Conference in Budapest on 24-27 September
will explore best practice procurement, trends within the industry that impact
on member firms and the key ingredients for delivering quality projects. The
full programme as well as online registration are available at
www.consulting2006.org. Please register as soon as possible: the early
bird rates end on 15 July, and hotel bookings at conference rates and payment
for all tours and optional events must be settled by 15 August.
Several important meetings take place before the conference, including a special
meeting for permanent and honorary Member Association managers on Saturday, 23
September, followed by a special meeting for Presidents on Sunday, 24 September.
FIDIC Young Professionals management trainees will also be completing their
training programme, before participating in the conference. The conference gala
dinner is at the world-renowned Gellert Hotel, shown in the photo, on Tuesday
evening, and the General Assembly Meetings of both FIDIC and the coorganizing
European federation EFCA are on Wednesday, 27 September.
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Young professionals 2006 training programme gets underway
[full item: 48Ev]
 Some
30 participants from 18 countries "met" online in early-February 2006 to launch
the 2006 FIDIC Young Professionals Management Training Programme (the 2005
programme participants are shown in the photo, taken at the FIDIC 2005 Beijing
conference). Firms are to be congratulated for supporting these future leaders,
who will spend seven months training online. Issues to be covered include growth
and profit strategies, the marketing of consulting services, personnel
development and ownership structures. Case studies will be analysed and the many
rich experiences shared to enable each participant to add value back into their
firms and associations, with FIDIC gaining from the collective expertise. The
programme ends at the 2006 International Consulting Engineering Conference
(Budapest; 24-27 September) with a special workshop that will be a conference
feature.
Among the trainees is Uganda's Sara Senyondo, the first recipient of the newly
established FIDIC Past-Presidents Future Leader Scholarship. Sara was thrilled
to receive the award, which enables her to participate in the training programme
and attend the Budapest conference. The scholarship, aimed at firms from
less-developed countries, identifies budding managers who would benefit from
exposure to the international benchmarking that is offered by the FIDIC
programme. See www.fidic.org/ypmtp
for information.
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Forthcoming visits and meetings
[full item: 32Ev]
GAMA Annual Conference,
Bagamoyo, Tanzania, 20 Apr- 5 May2006
FIDIC-ACEA Project Sustainability Management
Workshops, Australia, 2-5 Apr 2006
FIDIC Adjudicators Assessment
Workshop, UK, 27-29 Apr 2006
FIDIC-Cornerstone Contracts
Workshop, Cairo, 25-26 Apr 2006
FIDIC-ECV Contracts
Course, Bucharest, 10-11 May 2006
FIDIC-ECV Contracts Course,
Zagreb, 25-26 May 2006
Les journées internationales de l'Ingénerie, Tunis
- Contracts
Seminar, 7 Jun 2006
- SISE Salon
Workshops, 8-9 Jun 2006
International Consulting Engineering
Conference, Budapest, 24-27 Sep 2006
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New bank harmonised Construction Contract
[full item: 57Co]
The multilateral developments banks (MDB) have had the opportunity to test the
first version, issued in May 2005, of the MDB Harmonised Edition of the FIDIC
Construction Contract for use on bank-financed projects. Further additions and
modifications were required for their needs: after full consultation, these have
been agreed with FIDIC for a new March 2006 version. The contract's
anticorruption clause has been adjusted, with the each bank incorporating
different wording with a view to a harmonisation of definitions. So, for printed
copies, the anticorruption clause is on a separate page for each bank: users
need only to remove the pages that do not concern them, thus ensuring the
integrity and authenticity of the General Conditions. The General Conditions are
incorporated in a bank's Standard Bidding Document for major civil works, or its
equivalent. Meanwhile, FIDIC ensures delivery by download from
fidic.org/mdb of authentic, fully formatted General Conditions. An
electronic version of the full Conditions of Contract that include Particular
Conditions' forms are available from the FIDIC Bookshop, with server-controlled
access protection to ensure the authenticity of the General Conditions if they
are distributed to a third party. FIDIC also ensures that its numerous training
courses, workshops and seminars on FIDIC contracts deal with the harmonised
contract.
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FIDIC says farewell to a trusted adviser
[full item: 58Co]
 Long-standing
FIDIC supporter John Bowcock was recognized at his final meeting with the FIDIC
Contracts Committee, on which he has served in various capacities for 12 years.
A certificate and plaque were presented by FIDIC Managing Director Enrico Vink
on behalf of the FIDIC Executive Committee and all FIDIC members. John, who has
provided sage and valued advice on many FIDIC activities, was awarded FIDIC's
highest award, the Prangey Award, in 1999, and continued to serve after
retirement from consulting work. His expertise is evidenced in all the recent
FIDIC contract documents. A committee working group has drafted a Dredgers
Contract, the first edition of which (see cover illustration) was published in
March 2006. The committee is currently tackling the difficult task of updating
FIDIC's widely used Client-Consultant Model Services Agreement (The White
Book) with is accompanying joint venture and sub-consultancy agreements. Other
committee task groups are updating the publication Tendering Procedures
and drafting a Construction Contract subcontract and a new
design-build-operate contract (draft General Conditions will be presented at the
2006 International Consulting Engineering Conference, Budapest, 24-27 February;
www.consulting2006.org).
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Sweden looks outside the box
[full item: 43Re]
Recognizing that in a globalised world some new thinking is required to stay
ahead in a fiercely competitive market, Sweden's FIDIC Member Association STD
organized a seminar in late-2005 to tease out some of the paradigm shifts in
thinking required to capitalize on opportunities. Presentations and discussions
highlighted that, whilst the market has tried to standardize the industry,
innovation and good communication can still bring success for consulting firms.
We live in an ideas world, says STD, and selling ideas is what consulting
engineering is all about. The all-important networking between firms after the
seminar suggested that the ideas planted were being put to good effect.
Follow-up activities will explore how to enhance creativity to enable innovation
to flourish and to develop competitive advantages. Among them is Building Smart,
which focuses on modeling for improved buildings. STD has also worked with
"creativity guru" Richard Florida (see
www.creativeclass.org) who has fascinating views on how to "think
outside the box".
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ADB procurement procedures
[full item: 66Pr]
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) allocated some $300 million in 2005 for
technical assignments, and opportunities for consultants through ADB funded
projects are increasing. Reflecting recommendations from the market, including
FIDIC as the consulting engineering industry's global representative, the ADB
has adjusted procedures for procuring consulting services for greater
transparency and improved efficiencies. Individual and company appointments will
both be affected by the changes, and assignments will be bundled for improved
economy. New are Project Administration Instructions (www.adb.org/documents/manuals/PAI/)
that outline the procedures to be followed by ADB staff in administering ADB-financed
loan and technical assistance projects. Member firms affected by the changes are
encouraged to become familiar with the new guidelines before their
implementation on 1 April 2006 (see www.adb.org).
The key drivers for the changes are streamlining (time reduced from 60 to 40
days), harmonization (some 90% of procedures have now been harmonized with the
other major development banks), transparency (more information will be
available; debriefing becomes more important), modernization (greater use of
internet; performance-based contracting introduced).
FIDIC President Jorge Díaz Padilla, Managing Director Enrico Vink and Executive
Committee member Xie Shaozhang were briefed on the new procedures during a visit
to the bank in February 2006, and congratulated by senior officials on FIDIC's
positive and helpful contributions during the review process. For its part, the
FIDIC delegation expressed gratitude for the frank and open exchange of views,
and for the tremendous support from the ADB at the hugely successful FIDIC 2005
conference in Beijing.
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Complementary studies of scope of service definitions launched
[full item: 67Pr]
For a greater transparency in procurement and to reduce or even remove technical
barriers to open competition, FIDIC is working to develop standard definitions
for the scope of services offered by consulting engineers. In a complimentary
project, FIDIC is also collaborating with the European federation EFCA on an
European Union (EU) funded project investigating the possible standardization of
consulting services within the Union. Although the EU study is much broader, and
includes a survey of current systems in European states, FIDIC's work offers
valuable information. In turn, the EU study will help FIDIC identify existing
definitions. Progress will be reported at the 2006 International Consulting
Engineering Conference (Budapest, 24-27 September,
www.consulting 2006.org) that is organized by FIDIC and EFCA in
association with their Member Association AHCEA-Hungary.
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UNEP's Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative launched
[full item: 46De]
 Identifying
ways to promote energy and resource efficient building and buildings is
challenging since activities span several industry sectors and involve a wide
range of skills, with few major actors. FIDIC's Project Sustainability
Management (PSM) takes a global approach to ensuring that building and buildings
are sustainable by putting in place processes to align project goals with global
objectives. This contrasts with a regulatory, standards-based approach that aims
to specify sustainability requirements for each component, but does not ensure
that the end result is sustainable construction. International agencies such as
UNEP have an important role to play in defining and piloting strategies that
work, so it is heartening that firms including Taiwan's Sinotech have agreed to
support UNEP's Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative that was
launched in early-March 2006. FIDIC, a founding member, looks forward to
partnering with several organizations and member firms in the implementation of
new approaches, among them PSM. The photo shows a school building in the USA
that was used as a case study in FIDIC's publication on PSM guidelines.
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FIDIC participates in anticorruption discussions
[full item: 20Et]
FIDIC President Jorge Díaz Padilla participated in an anti-corruption policy
roundtable in Brussels in January 2006. Although the meeting, organised by
Transparency International (TI) and OLAF, the European Commission's Unit to
combat fraud and corruption, focused on an analysis of debarment systems and the
blacklisting of firms, FIDIC emphasized the need to consider prevention rather
than on sanctioning. In addition to TI, European Commission, OECD, UN, and World
Bank representatives, those from the private sector included Robert Couturier
who chairs the European federation EFCA Partnership for Development Committee.
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China training centre explores certification
[full item: 29Im]
 FIDIC
has long promoted the concept of a quality standard for consulting engineers.
Finding practical ways to move forward has proved challenging. There is strong
support for the concept in China, where some form of formal recognition by the
industry of a consulting engineer's qualifications and experience is seen to
offer major benefits. The FIDIC-Tsinghua Training Centre at Beijing's Tsinghua
University has developed, in collaboration with FIDIC, a set of criteria for
certification. These include the fundamental range of business skills, plus
integrity management and sustainability management (articulated in the FIDIC
Guide to Practice Manual) together with knowledge of procurement procedures
and FIDIC contracts (currently being articulated in a proposed FIDIC
Contracts Manual). Sponsorship is being sought for a pilot project in China,
and proposals for a more global scheme are expected to take some time to
develop. Arrangements for a scheme in China, reviewed at the FIDIC Executive
Committee when it met in Geneva in mid-January, were discussed during a visit in
March 2006 by a FIDIC delegation to the training centre. The photo shows Jorge
Díaz Padilla, FIDIC President, on the left, wth the centre's Professor Wang
Qizheng during an earlier visit in September 2005.
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Meetings: see Events
2006 International Consulting Engineering
Conference, Budapest, 24-27 Sep 2006
Adjudicators Assessment
Workshop, UK, 27-29 Apr 2006
MA Letters
20/05: Adjudicators Assessment
PDF
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Employment opportunities at the Asian Development Bank
[full item: 5An]
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