Gulf states confirm need to restructure
[full item: 63Re]
Breakneck growth in the Gulf region in recent years has encouraged authorities to strengthen instruments to improve regulation, notably in the construction sector. For instance, authorities have taken out licences to amend FIDIC conditions of contract in line with local requirements, thus eliminating the need to verify country-specific particular conditions. FIDIC has also responded by organising training events and by strengthening coordination with local organisations. While visiting six countries in the region in February 2009, Gregs Thomopulos, FIDIC President-Elect, and Peter Boswell, FIDIC General Manager, met local associations and government officials and participated in FIDIC Seminars presenting the status of consulting engineering. In spite of the global financial crisis leading to the closure of numerous, mainly private sector, construction projects, the demand for consulting services remained strong. Evident was a renewed urgency to organise the region's consulting engineering sector so as to make firms better able to met local needs. Most countries saw FIDIC membership as a vital step. Firms often did not have a clear-cut mandate and organisation to promote best practice and effective procurement. Instead, societies for individual engineers were expected to handle professional, regulatory and business aspects. The recommendation to FIDIC will be to continue to require FIDIC members to be an independent organisation with an elected board and voluntary membership that represented the business interests of firms. Significant progress was being made in this respect. The FIDIC delegation met with officials of the new Association of Kuwaiti Engineers, and the UAE Society of Engineers announced during the visit that it was to help establish an industry organisation. Society officials in Oman and Qatar indicated that they were mindful of the need to develop the capacity of local firms, but that legislation was needed to allow reorganisation. In these cases, the FIDIC delegation argued strongly for associate membership to allow a coherent approach in promoting FIDIC best practice.
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FIDIC GAMA Africa conference takes stock of millennium goals
[full item: 45Im]
 In taking stock - Millennium Development Goals, are consulting engineers ready? - the FIDIC Group of Africa Member Associations GAMA 2009 Conference (Durban; 15-18 March 2009) echoed John Boyd, the FIDIC President: "In order to achieve social and economic growth it is most important that there is strong infrastructure in place". From a sectorial perspective, Raphael Mabenga, National Roads Agency, Zambia, gave his country's reformed road sector as an example of how achieving the goals relied heavily on transport infrastructure. Dr. Marlene Botha, DWAF-WISA African Partnerships, South Africa, went beyond this by arguing for the extension of sector-wide partnerships in the water sector to the regional level. From the financial perspective, African Development Bank representatives noted that the bank remained focussed on infrastructure-related public sector lending but that it had seen an increase in private sector lending through Public Private Partnerships. Thando Mhlambiso, ABSA Capital, South Africa, explained that a special unit had been set up to help channel private investment towards the USD 1 trillion needed to finance key industries in 12 African countries over the next 40 years.
As the FIDIC President noted, consulting engineers also needed to build their role as leaders along the lines discussed by Abdulhamed Abou Abdalla, Savings and Real Estate Investment Bank, Libya, and Ian Young, Kwezi V3, South Africa, who described how consultants in Libya had partnered with investment banks to provide turnkey solutions. A similar concept was proposed by Kribbs Moodley, PD Naidoo and Associates, South Africa, who had modelled the integration of engineering, business, local knowledge and networks to meet the millennium goals. Many of the conference's 170 participants, including representatives from 15 African countries, stayed for the GAMA General Assembly Meeting which elected Mayen Adetiba, Nigeria, as the GAMA chair, replacing Exaud Mushi, Tanzania, whose opening address stressed the need to tackle corruption (presentations are available at FIDIC.org/GAMA).The 2009 GAMA Executive Committee shown in the photo are, from the back left, Nabil Chater, Tunisia, Mwesigwa Kamulali, Tanzania, Ashraf Zaki, Sudan, Bob Izzett, Botswana, George Sitali, Zambia, Mayen Adetiba, Nigeria, and Arthur Taute, South Africa.
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"Delivering sustainable solutions to global challenges", the theme for the FIDIC 2009 London Conference, takes on a whole new meaning in the light of today's financial crisis, for it is the backdrop to other major global challenges that need to be addressed as a matter of extreme urgency. These challenges include climate change, the increasing energy demand, the massive need for infrastructure investment, and mass urbanisation. To address the challenges effectively the world needs the leadership, experience and creativity of the consulting engineering industry. Consulting engineers must position themselves to take the lead, mobilise resources and apply their expertise and knowledge to deliver sustainable solutions to the challenges, and help lead the world out of recession. The conference will explore three sub-themes - Industry challenges and responses; Critical geographic and sector issues; Developing a more agile, responsive and high-profile industry - with the overarching goal to identify the key actions FIDIC, Member Associations and member firms should take to ensure that the industry leads the response to addressing the challenges. Business sessions will break down and examine each theme in detail, with daily wrap-up sessions leading to a final report that will be used to benchmark outcomes at the FIDIC 2010 New Delhi Conference.
Reports from around the world point to an increased and accelerating investment in infrastructure as a means to stimulate economies affected by the drying up of credit. Announced stimulus packages amount to an additional 20 billion USD in industry turnover involving some 3% of industry staff (see 
In launching in February 2009 a new identity for the South African Association of Consulting Engineers, which now becomes Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), Felix Fongoqa, CESA President (see photo), gave as a major focus a "zero tolerance approach to all forms of corruption" which is "undermining the construction industry" in his country. An Anti-Corruption and Business Integrity Indaba is planned along with continued promotion of the FIDIC Business Integrity Management System (BIMS). CESA aimed to move from awareness to the implementation of BIMS within member firms as part of quality management. He also called for public sector clients to adopt the Government Procurement Integrity Management System (GPIMS) which ensured that a high level of integrity prevailed among those in positions of trust. He stated that, "As an organisation we will be lobbying government to adopt and underwrite this system as a matter of national policy with respect to the procurement of infrastructure". While visiting South Africa shortly after for the FIDIC GAMA-Africa Conference (see 
In an unprecedented move, FIDIC and CICA, the international confederation representing the contracting sector, have issued a statement jointly condemning the negative impact of corruption on society in general, and on sustainable business practices in particular. Both noted that the private sector had implemented procedures designed to increase transparency and to curb unethical practices. However, these efforts had not been accompanied by corresponding initiatives from public stakeholders who, to a large extent, had not improved their internal procedures in order to manage integrity issues more effectively. Moving forward, FIDIC and CICA aimed to set up partnerships with international finance institutions, procurement agencies and organisations representing private clients that acknowledged the practical tools which had been developed to systematise integrity management.
Dr John Boyd, FIDIC President, received the ACEI-Ireland President's Award for "outstanding contributions and dedication to the promotion of Project Sustainability Management within the global market" at the association's annual awards dinner in Dublin in February 2009. In his acceptance address, John challenged consulting engineers "to innovate in difficult times and by so doing create a more sustainable future for our society". The key to PSM were the goals for the seven issues to be addressed for a sustainable project in addition, of course, to timely delivery, according to budget, and suitable for the intended purpose. If the industry's clients considered these issues at all, it was in the context of conforming to the regulatory framework that existed at the project site. PSM was based on the premise that regulatory frameworks provided an inadequate set of targets: many regulations were too simple and ignored the fact that what was acceptable today may be unacceptable within a project's lifetime. Projects therefore inhabited the rocky ground between regulation and perfection defined in sustainability terms, with their contribution to sustainability measured by how closely they approached true sustainability. The President pointed out that PSM training courses organised under the FIDIC International Training Programme showed how these PSM principles were applied in practice.