International Federation of Consulting Engineers FIDIC News	May 2008 Online at FIDIC.org/news Print friendly PDF

Activities   Registration for FIDIC 2008 Quebec Conference open A strong industry serving society is the theme for the FIDIC 2008 Conference in Quebec, Canada.   Africa days highlight energy and the environment Consulting Engineers Africa 2008 includes the FIDIC-GAMA 2008 conference, ADB workshops, ANBEIC-Tunis workshops and a contracts seminar.   Key strategic issues tackled by the Executive Committee The FIDIC Executive Committee meeting in Madrid and Seoul reviewed strategies for regional groupings, committee activities, training, and document licences.   Operational aspects under executive scrutiny Reports on FIDIC's operations highlighted financial resources, new members, new publications, and collaboration with other organizations. Events   Some 25 countries represented at the FIDIC Asia-Pacific conference The FIDIC-ASPAC Asia-Pacific 2008 Regional Conference allowed an excellent overview of the role of engineering in the globalisation era.   Forthcoming meetings and events Consulting Engineers Africa 2008 in Tunis (22-25 June 2008) and FIDIC 2007 Quebec Conference feature. Contracts   Dispute adjudication training expands Regional forums, training workshops and more training courses based on Module 3 of the FIDIC Contracts Manual are planned. Representation   FIDIC Syria Awareness Seminar FIDIC organized a seminar in Damascus, Syria, to promote the use of FIDIC contracts, agreements and best practice in a booming construction market. Business practice   SB Alliance launched The UK and France have started to set up the Sustainable Building Alliance to develop core building assessment system.   Sustainable Development Committee member to chair UNEP initiative Dr Ike van der Putte will chair UNEP's Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative that is focussing on three key topics. Business development   Development bank sustainability and integrity seminars FIDIC is helping to organize seminars to evaluate ways for incorporating sustainability and integrity management in procurement processes. Ethics   FIDIC signs a MoU with professional associations organization FIDIC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Federation of Engineering Organisations that represents engineers' professional interests. Image   World Bank country systems pilot programme to go ahead The World Bank country procurement systems pilot programme will report back to the bank's Board in two years.   Japan development bank envisages contract licence A FIDIC delegation's visit to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation confirmed the bank's plan to licence the Harmonised Construction Contract. Notices to Member Associations   MA Notices: May 2008

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Activities Registration for FIDIC 2008 Quebec Conference open [full item: 100Ac]   Registrations for the consulting engineering industry's premier conference - in Quebec, Canada, on 7-10 September 2008 - are now open at www.fidic2008.org. Under the theme A strong industry serving society the annual conference will challenge consulting engineers and other professionals responsible for vital infrastructure to build a stronger industry that can serve society even more effectively. The focus will be on the role of engineers in influencing decision-makers while delivering the high quality projects that meet global needs. One of three sub-themes (Influencing society; Delivering quality; Building strong organizations) will be explored during each day's plenary sessions: speakers representing business leaders, clients and society at large will propose strategies to help meet society's expectations while ensuring the development of a stronger and more viable consulting engineering industry. A closing plenary session will identify clear goals and actions for the industry.   The conference includes a remarkable social programme and exceptional events for accompanying persons, and young professionals will be organizing special activities. A Design, Build and Operate Contract Seminar given by the contract's main drafters will be held on the day after the conference (11 September 2008) at the conference venue, the world-famous Chateau Frontenac Hotel, where accommodation can be reserved at special conference rates until 3 August 2008. Africa days highlight energy and the environment [full item: 101Ac]   Energy and the environment are key issues for all countries, and of a special concern for Africa. The FIDIC Group of African Member Associations (GAMA) 2008 Regional Conference takes up the energy and environment theme as part of Consulting Engineers Africa 2008, a series of events organized by ANBEIC-Tunisia in Tunis on 22-25 June 2008. The events include not only the FIDIC GAMA-Africa 2008 Regional Conference but also ANBEIC Energy and the Environment Workshops and a FIDIC-ANBEIC Contracts and Dispute Resolution Seminar. Featured in the GAMA conference are African Development Bank workshops that highlight the bank's policies, operations and capacity development programmes. Participants can register for each event separately or for all events, each with a special reduction of 30% for FIDIC-GAMA members. To register for Consulting Engineers Africa 2008 (22-25 June 2008), click Add to Order (Euro 595); to register for the FIDIC-GAMA 2008 Conference (22-23 June 2008), click Add to Order (Euro 175). Details are available at FIDIC.org/GAMA together with the programme and a registration form PDF Key strategic issues tackled by the Executive Committee [full item: 102Ac]   At the strategic level, the FIDIC Executive Committee meeting in Madrid in late-January 2008 and in Seoul in late-April 2008 agreed to finalise a strategic plan for FIDIC based on a balanced scorecard approach, and to comment on an excellent FIDIC-EFCA Task Force (see News item) survey and report on more effective representation in Europe and on closer integration of the common interests of FIDIC and of the European federation EFCA. Regarding committee activities, following a member survey (see News item) it was agreed that ISO quality management liaison status would be maintained by boosting activities. Also, the Business Practices Committee would prioritise its work plan, and the Risk and Liability Committee should reconsider a work plan based on updating existing publications. A training policy (see News item) was also approved that not only sought a greater commitment by committees to develop training materials but also clarified the current training strategy based on modules delivered on a commercial basis by training suppliers, in association wherever possible with a local partner such as a FIDIC Member Association (MA). It was noted that the FIDIC-CNAEC-Tsinghua Training Centre and the CNEAEC-China pilot scheme for FIDIC certification (see News item) would be placed on hold pending changes in government strategies. Young professionals activities received special attention with agreement on a Young Professionals Forum (YPF) business plan (see FIDIC.org/ypf), a decision to help distribute a clearly branded YPF newsletter via MAs, and a recommendation to focus YP management training on career path training (the 2008 FIDIC Young Professionals Training Programme with over 30 participants, see FIDIC.org/ypmtp, is mainly case-based). The executive appointed Alex Eyquem, UK, as the YPF chair. He takes over from Richard Stump (see photo) who has piloted the YPF from modest beginnings to becoming a truly global network.

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Operational aspects under executive scrutiny [full item: 103Ac]   Regarding FIDIC operations, Executive Committee meeting in Madrid and Seoul (see News item), approved audited accounts for 2007 that gave a 300 kSFR surplus, owing mainly to the time lag between an unexpected 30% increase in FIDIC Bookshop sales for 2007 and the reprinting of new stock. With financial reserves amounting to 2730 kSFR, it was decided that they should continue to be built up to the 2800 kSFR level whenever possible to cover FIDIC's growing liabilities. The executive also considered limiting by statute the working language for official documents to English to reduce administration costs, approved procedures for licencing FIDIC contracts (see News item), and accepted for relisting members of the FIDIC President's List of Approved Dispute Adjudicators (see FIDIC.org/DAB). Concerning members: Implenia (Switzerland), Les Contracteurs (France), Robert Mclean (Canada), and A. Siddiqui (UAE) were admitted as Affiliate Members; Albania was excluded from membership owing to unpaid fees; South America's consulting engineering associations would be approached directly to explore membership; the impact of inflation adjusting the Less-Developed Country (LDC) factor for membership fees would be assessed; procedures for admitting the new category of Associate (see FIDIC.org/members) agreed at the 2007 General Assembly Meeting (GAM) were approved. The Associate's fee will be based on the number of industry staff in a country times any LDC factor times the Eased Entry Factor of 0.25 times a purchasing parity-adjusted Unit Fee (now 3.1 CHF per staff member). MAs will be consulted on a proposal that for an Associate joining under an umbrella arrangement, the staff number would be the relevant portion of the industry staff number.   Approved for publication were a new Definition of Scope Guide and Prequalification, part of a new, three-part Project Procurement guide (see photo above) that incorporates updated prequalification forms for contractors (the second part will replace Tendering Procedure 2nd Edition 1994 and the third part covers project strategy). To be published are a joint FIDIC - World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) - UNESCO report on engineering (in 2008) and a FIDIC state of the world infrastructure report (in 2009). The executive also agreed in principle that FIDIC News would be circulated to firms having direct contact with FIDIC through the federation's activities. The WFEO's 2009 World Engineering Congress in Geneva would be supported by FIDIC speakers and other proposals for collaboration with non-governmental organizations would be decided on a case-by-case basis, recognizing that many NGOs have become both clients and competitors to the consulting engineering industry. Finally, a task force will draft proposals for the FIDIC centenary conference in 2013, with input from MAs, for a preliminary discussion at the FIDIC 2008 Quebec GAM (10 September 2008; www.fidic2008.org).   Events Some 25 countries represented at the FIDIC Asia-Pacific conference [full item: 58Ev]   Participants from some 25 countries attended the 2008 FIDIC ASPAC Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in Seoul on 22-25 April 2008 that was organized in collaboration with the TCDPAP regional development programme which is supported by India's Consultancy Development Centre, a FIDIC Affiliate Member. The 169th meeting of the FIDIC Executive Committee meeting (see News item) was held immediately before the conference to allow several members, including John Boyd, FIDIC President, to address the conference.   The FIDIC ASPAC conference theme, The role of engineering in the globalisation era, allowed speakers from Australia, Azerbaijan, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, to review the roles played by consulting engineers in their countries, how industry capacity was being developed, resource gaps between the region's more developed and less developed countries, and how consultants were being selected under various national procurement systems. Presentations are available on the conference website. Korea has proposed to host the FIDIC 2012 Conference at the magnificent COEX conference centre (see photo above) next to the ASPAC conference venue.

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Forthcoming meetings and events [full item: 56Ev]   FIDIC-Indonesia Contracts Seminar, Jakata, 28-29 May 08 FIDIC-ICC Dispute Resolution Conference, Houston, 2-4 Jun 08 FIDIC-ECV Claims & Dispute Resolution Course, Brussels, 9-10 Jun 08 FIDIC-MDB Sustainability & Integrity Seminars, Washington DC, 9-10 Jun 08 FIDIC GAMA-Africa Regional Conference, Tunis, 22-25 Jun 08 FIDIC-Tunisia Contracts Seminar, Tunis, 25 Jun 08 FIDIC-Cornerstone Claims & Dispute Resolution Workshop, Budapest, 26-27 Jun 08 FIDIC-VBI Contracts Seminars, Berlin, 26-27 Sep 08 FIDIC 2008 Quebec Conference, Quebec, 7-10 Sep 08 FIDIC-ECV Contracts Course, Brussels, 6-7 Oct 08   Contracts Dispute adjudication training expands [full item: 70Co]   With the growing use of FIDIC contracts worldwide (FIDIC sales increased by 30% in 2007), several FIDIC Member Associations have established national lists of adjudicators offering experienced and qualified adjudicators capable of working in their own language and understanding the local situation. As detailed at FIDIC.org/DAB, the lists follow FIDIC guidelines, with FIDIC maintaining an access point for information. In the Asia-Pacific region, an Adjudicators Forum (Manila; August 2007) is being organized by CECOPHIL-Philippines and the local chapter of the Dispute Review Board Foundation, with support from AJCE-Japan and the Japanese development bank, JBIC (see News item). Salvador Castro (see photo), is the coordinator. The forum accompanies a FIDIC-CECOPHIL-DBRF Contracts Training Course (Manila; 22-27 August 2008). In the Balkans, the International Finance Corporation is finalising an agreement with FIDIC to support alternative dispute resolution services, including adjudication. Meanwhile, building on the demand for training courses for Module 1 (practical use) and Module 2 (claims and dispute management) of the FIDIC Contracts Manual, the FIDIC training course supplier ECV and the FIDIC training workshop supplier DBTraining are planning, in association with FIDIC and local partners wherever possible, Module 3 (DAB) training courses and workshops in Bosnia, Trinidad, UAE, and Vietnam (details will be announced on FIDIC.org). ECV has organized FIDIC-ECV DAB training courses in Romania and the UAE, and a course will be held in Sri Lanka on 27-28-May 2008, with local support from The World Bank.   Representation FIDIC Syria Awareness Seminar [full item: 59Re]   Consulting engineering in Syria is characterised by a large government controlled consulting organization, the General Company for Consulting, and a single procurement law that regulates the private sector and applies to all government purchases. Given the considerable opportunities for international developers and contractors and the growing need for modern infrastructure - both public and private - the government is examining ways to incorporate FIDIC works contracts, services agreements and best practice guidelines into government procurement, while at the same time facilitating the use of FIDIC contracts in the private sector. Meethak, a Damascus-based consulting and legal firm, and Halcrow Syria arranged for Maxime Mazloum, former FIDIC Executive Committee member, and Peter Boswell, FIDIC General Manager, to meet the Prime Minister, Dr Mohammad Naji Ottri, in February 2008 (see news agency report). It was agreed to organize a FIDIC Awareness Seminar under his patronage. The seminar, attended by over 100 participants including senior officials from the major ministries, was held in April 2008 in Damascus. It was opened by Eigil Pedersen, FIDIC Past-President, and Dr Boswell, with Nabil Abbas, Saudi Arabia, Munther Saket, Jordan, and David Yaw, Halcrow, moderating sessions on FIDIC contracts, consultancy services agreements and the organization of a consulting industry. An expert group that met immediately after the seminar recommended adopting the FIDIC Construction Contract, possibly as an annex to the procurement law, and updating consultancy agreements according to the FIDIC Client/Consultant Model Services Agreement. The next step will be to explore the need for training, and to discuss ways for Syria to work towards a viable consulting engineering industry with membership in FIDIC.

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Business practice SB Alliance launched [full item: 75Pr]   The French and UK building research organizations responsible for the HQE and BREEM building certification schemes have launched the Sustainable Building Alliance (SB Alliance) where organizations and their stakeholders will collaborate in the development of a core building assessment system (the photo shows a HQE rated building). The aim is to establish common metrics for key issues so as to provide transparency between rating systems that recognize regional and national differences. Most rating systems (see BRE website for a useful comparison) are moving towards procedures for allowing ratings to be adjusted for local characteristics, something that FIDIC's Project Sustainability Management (PSM) indicator system recognized right from the start. Incorporating PSM will ensure that local customisation is done rigorously and uniformly throughout systems participating in the SB Alliance. It is envisaged that instead of having buildings rated according to several systems (US LEED, French HQE, and UK BREEM, for example) a single certification by a SB Alliance team member will meet clients' expectations. Sustainable Development Committee member to chair UNEP initiative [full item: 76Pr]   Dr Ike van der Putte (RPS, The Netherlands, and a member of FIDIC's Sustainable Development Committee) has been elected to chair the Board of the UN Environmental Programme Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative (UNEP SBCI) for 2008-9. He represents FIDIC, a founding member of the SBCI, a global partnership between UNEP and worldwide leading companies to support sustainable solutions for the construction sector. A SBCI climate change think tank aims to develop mechanisms for including buildings in carbon markets because it has found that the Kyoto Agreement's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is not working for buildings (only 14 of CDM's 2700 projects are for buildings, which are is responsible for 30 - 40% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions). Other think tanks (see summaries in PDF) will: a) report on progress towards zero-emissions buildings; b) draft a Global Benchmarking System for Sustainable Buildings and Construction using parameters selected from established building rating systems (see News item); c) develop a web-based tool for selecting the most suitable package of policies under various conditions.   Business development Development bank sustainability and integrity seminars [full item: 57De]   It was agreed in late-2007 with the multilateral development banks' heads of procurement to develop workshops in June 2008 on the two key issues of sustainability and integrity management. The aim would be to explore in detail how sustainability and corruption mitigation practices can incorporated in procurement processes, and how they would work in practice. John Boyd, FIDIC President, and Enrico Vink, FIDIC Managing Director, visited all the major development banks in February 2008 in order to consolidate the banks' commitment and to focus the seminar programmes. FIDIC Executive Committee members who assisted where Geoff French, in London, Pablo Bueno Tomas, in Washington, Xie Shaozhang, in Manila, and Patrick Batumbya, in Tunis. To reinforce regional interests, Akihito Hirotani, FIDIC-ASPAC chair, joined the discussions in Manila, and Exaud Mushi, FIDIC-GAMA chair, those in Tunis. The seminars, by invitation only, will take place on 9-10 June 2008 in Washington DC.   Ethics FIDIC signs a MoU with professional associations organization [full item: 38Et]   While some professional engineers working in the public sector are represented by associations, most rely upon the professional associations that make up the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) to promote their interests as individual professionals. FIDIC recognizes that public sector staff have a key role to play in developing high quality, sustainable projects (see News item). During the Executive Committee meeting in Madrid in late-January 2008 (see News item), FIDIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the WFEO with the view to expanding joint activities, notably programmes to ensure integrity in project procurement.

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Image World Bank country systems pilot programme to go ahead [full item: 41Im]   The World Bank has been "defining a methodology for piloting the use of country systems" for procuring bank-financed projects since 2005. A discussion paper was revised in the light of the comments received, and disclosed for further comment on in March 2008. In late-April 2008, the bank's Executive Directors approved a pilot programme involving 8-10 carefully selected countries with procurement systems that meet bank standards and participating in accordance with international best practice. In two years time, the Board will take stock and decide whether to continue the pilot and, if so, in what manner. Recognizing the special challenges related to the procurement of consulting services, such services were in the end not included. In liaising with bank, FIDIC has offered advisory services for the pilot programme. FIDIC's comments on key issues are available on the bank's country systems website. Japan development bank envisages contract licence [full item: 42Im]   The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, JBIC, has a project portfolio of some USD 2 billion and is active in some 30 countries throughout Asia and Africa. It is currently merging with Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA, as major part of a comprehensive overhaul on Japan's Overseas Development Agency, ODA, with disbursements totalling USD 20 billion. Following the example of AusAID, Australia's development agency, JBIC is arranging to licence the MDB Harmonised Edition (see FIDIC.org/MDB) of the FIDIC Construction Contract for the projects it funds. Opportunities to assist with training of bank staff in the use of the contract will follow. This is already happening in Indonesia where AusAID's use of the Harmonised Contract on major roads projects triggered translations of both the harmonised and standard 1st Edition of the Construction Contact into Bahasa-Indonesia (see FIDIC Bookshop), with the first training seminar planned for 28-29 May 2008 (Ritz Carlton Hotel; Jakarta) to launch a FIDIC-INKINDO contracts training course programme. John Boyd, FIDIC President, and Enrico Vink, FIDIC Managing Director, met with senior JBIC officials in late-February to review licence arrangements and procurement polices and procedures. While in Japan, the FIDIC delegation was also able to support AJCE-Japan in pushing for improved procurement practices at a meeting with the Vice-Minister of a "super ministry" for infrastructure, construction, transport and other key economic areas that promotes the export of consulting services.   Notices to Member Associations Meetings: see Meetings Executive Committee, Quebec, 4-5 Sep 08 Contracts, Copenhagen, 30 Jun 08 MA Letters 01/08: EC Nominations PDF 02/08: Quality Management Survey PDF 03/08: GAMA-Africa Conference PDF

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