Africa's engineers review regional cooperation
[full item: 80Ac]
 Africa's consulting engineers met at the FIDIC Group of Africa Member Association (GAMA) conference in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, in early April 2006 for the 13th GAMA Annual Conference to review networking and cooperation in engineering consultancy. Abisai Temba, Director of Tanzania's Ministry of Infrastructure Development, emphasised that NEPAD's main focus is to promote regional integration to overcome economies of scale. Progress has been slow owing to poor integration of the private sector and weak institutions.
One way forward was to mobilize local resources, and several presentations gave examples of the excellent local capacity that is available. Another path was to strengthen institutional frameworks. Here again, participants heard of an excellent example from Tanzania presented by B.L.M. Mwamila of Tanzania's Engineers Registration Board and Exaud Mushi, Chairman of the conference host, the Association of Consulting Engineers Tanzania.
Participants were also able to keep abreast of the latest developments in business practice with presentations on virtual engineering and risk management. The room was also full on the last day's FIDIC Workshop, when participants indicated a need for information and guidance on anti-corruption initiatives. Assisted by FIDIC Past-President Eigil Pedersen, Jorge Diaz Padilla, FIDIC President, outlined FIDIC's policy on zero tolerance, as well as the tools developed by FIDIC to tackle corrupt practices head on, notably Business Integrity Management. Finally, to round out a busy three days, Bayo Adeola, a FIDIC Executive Committee member who leads the FIDIC GAMA Task Force summarized the task force's draft report. Conference presentations are available from the FIDIC Secretariat in hard copy and will be available on the GAMA website, FIDIC.org/GAMA.
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Professional services exhibition to raise industry profile in north Africa
[full item: 49Ev]
Plans to organize "FIDIC days" in conjunction with the major government-sponsored Salon International des Services (SISE) in Tunis on 8 - 9 June 2006 are developing rapidly. There will be a FIDIC Contracts seminar on 7 June, the first organized by FIDIC in French as a lead up to future contracts training courses. FIDIC workshops then take place during the professional services exhibition and forum on the 8 - 9 June.
The events, that are being organized by FIDIC's Tunisian Member Assocation ANBEIC, will provide a major opportunity for firms to learn about business opportunities in North Africa, and to meet procurement officials from the main countries. Participants can link to the SISE website and register for the contracts seminar at FIDIC.org. The availability of French translations of the 1999 FIDIC works contracts is key. These are being finalized ready for a review by FIDIC's francophone associations, and the Multilateral Development Banks that have licensed the Construction Contract for their MDB Harmonised Edition (see news item) are deciding upon which bank should take responsibility for the French translation.
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Forthcoming visits and meetings
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FIDIC-ECV Contracts Course, Zagreb, 25-26 May 2006
Cornerstone Disputes Resolution Workshop, Bucharest, 1-2 June 2006
VI Congreso Panamericano de Consultoria (FEPAC 2006), Rio de Janeiro, 4-6 June 2006
Les journees internationales de l'Ingenierie, Tunis
- Contracts Seminar, 7 June 2006
- SISE Salon Workshops, 8-9 June 2006
FIDIC-ECV Contracts Course, Brussels, 8-9 June 2006
EFCA GAM and Directors Meeting, Bucharest, 9 June 2006
FIDIC-ICC Contracts Conference, Hong Kong, 3-4 July 2006
International Consulting Engineering Conference, Budapest, 24-27 Sep. 2006
FIDIC-ECV Dispute Resolution Course, St. Petersburg, 17-17 Oct. 2006
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The action packed programme for the International Consulting Engineering Conference (Budapest; 24-27 September) has been finalised. Registration forms and information are available at 
Basic infrastructure is vital in the fight against poverty. This was the key message presented by FIDIC President Jorge Diaz Padilla and Managing Director Enrico Vink at FIDIC's 2006 ASPAC Asia-Pacific regional conference in Dhaka in March. Hosted by Bangladesh Association of Consulting Engineers, FIDIC's national Member Association, guests included government officials, Bangladesh's Asian Development Bank Country Director Hua Du and FIDIC ASPAC association representatives from Pakistan, Korea, China, Singapore, Nepal and India.
The 4th Engineering Consultancy Congress on trade in consulting engineering services, organized in Ankara in April by ATCEA, FIDIC's Turkish Member Association, had as its second day the 2nd Balkan Forum on overcoming barriers to collaboration in the Balkans. Attended by the FIDIC President, on the left of the photo with Rasit Unuvar, ATCEA President, and the FIDIC Managing Director, information and experience on market conditions were shared, along with ideas for joint initiatives. Participants included FIDIC representatives of Member Associations from Turkey, Albania, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. Discussions on understanding the role of consulting engineers, procurement procedures, fee scales and standardized documentation - issues that were being addressed by all the associations represented - were boosted by the presence of the FIDIC participants, who were able to share FIDIC best practice. Congress presentations available online at 
The 4th World Water Forum, with the theme Local actions for global challenge, came to an end on the World Water Day (22 March 2006) in Mexico City after seven days of debates. Close to 20000 delegates, including officials and delegates from 140 countries, experts, journalists and representatives of NGOs, firms, civil society and young people, participated in two hundred working sessions where 1500 local actions were presented. Opening the forum, Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, Netherland's Prince Willem-Alexander and Morocco's Prime Minister, Driss Jettou, stressed that global water challenges must be met with action at the local level. FIDIC co-hosted the same day the session Sustainable and secure delivery of water: unique solutions proposed by the consulting industry with its Japanese and Mexican Member Associations, AJCE and CNEC. From the left in the photo, Prof. Enrique Santoyo, CNEC, John Boyd, FIDIC Vice-President, Jorge Diaz Padilla, convener and FIDIC President, and Yoshihiko Yamashita, AJCE, made presentations (see