Meetings made a vital contribution to the annual conference
[full item: 99Ac]
An important stream of activities that ran in parallel to the FIDIC 2007 Singapore Conference programme included meetings of all of FIDIC's nine committees, as well as meetings of committees working on future FIDIC conferences. Meetings were also held with representatives of the Japan Bank of International Collaboration, which seeks closer collaboration, particularly in the area of training and standardised contracts, and of the major multilateral development banks, primarily to review the outcomes of the BIMILACI meeting in Washington in May 2007. It has been noted that given the number of critical issues affecting both the consulting engineering industry and funding agencies, there is value in meeting annually instead of every two years.
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FIDIC's 79th association voted at 2007 General Assembly
[full item: 98Ac]
 The FIDIC 2007 General Assembly Meeting (GAM) during the FIDIC 2007 Singapore Conference saw the election of Dr John Boyd as the FIDIC President for 2007-9; Gregs Thompoulos, USA, was elected Vice-President. In his acceptance address (available on www.fidic2007.org), John stressed that consulting engineers need to be not only trusted advisors to clients but also trusted advisors to society - a theme on the industry's role in society that will be taken up by the FIDIC 2008 Quebec Conference in his own country, Canada. Dr Boyd is a senior Principal, Golder Associates Corp., Canada, based at the company's headquarters near Toronto. John has been focussing recently on business and management training both within Golder and externally, especially on sustainable development. His most recent position in the company was Vice-President, Operations.
The new members elected to the Executive Committee to succeed Bayo Adeola, Nigeria, Jorge Diaz Padilla, Mexico, and Maxime Mazloum, France, were Patrick Batumbya, Uganda (on the left in the upper photo, Pablo Bueno Tomas, Spain, and Adam Thornton, New Zealand (on the right in the photo; CVs available on FIDIC.org). The GAM acknowledged Knowles, UK, as a new Affiliate Member, approved Tunis as the venue for the FIDIC 2011 conference, and unanimously approved the Association of Consulting Engineers Malawi (ACEM), the Jordan Architects and Consulting Engineers Council (JACEC), the Kazakhstan Association of Consulting Engineers (KACE), and the Russian Association of Engineering Consultants (RACE) as members, bringing the number of FIDIC Member Associations to 79.
 With Maxime Mazloum, the retiring Treasurer, reporting record Bookshop sales, significant new income from events and licences, an excellent recovery of membership fees, and a surplus for the FIDIC 2006 Budapest Conference, the GAM accepted the Executive Committee's recommendation not to increase the unit fee for subscriptions, and noted that Flemming Bligaard Pedersen, Denmark, had taken over as FIDIC Treasurer. The GAM also approved revisions to the FIDIC Statutes and By-laws that simplify membership by merging Sustaining Members with Affiliate Members, and by replacing Correspondents with a new Associate Member category. Finally, in appreciation of the remarkable contributions by volunteers to committee work, Axel Jaeger, Germany (on the right in the photo), and Tonny Jensen, Denmark (on the left), received the Prangey Award, FIDIC's only award, for their contributions to the drafting and promotion of FIDIC contracts and quality management documents, respectively (citations are available on www.fidic2007.org in PDF).
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Forthcoming meetings and events
[full item: 56Ev]
FIDIC-Cornerstone Contracts Workshop, Warsaw, 3-4 Dec 07
FIDIC Contracts Users Conference, London, 6-7 Dec 07
FIDIC-Jordan Business Development Course, Amman, 8-9 Dec 07
FIDIC-Jordan Financial Management Course, Amman, 10-11 Dec 07
FIDIC-ECV Contracts (Module 1) Course, Dubai, 21-22 Jan 08
FIDIC-ICC Contracts and Dispute Resolution Conference, Monaco, 24-25 08
FIDIC-Spain PSM Seminar, Madrid, 30 Jan 08
FIDIC DBO Briefing Seminar, Copenhagen, 1 Feb 08
FIDIC-Egypt Contracts User Conference, Cairo, mid-Feb 08
FIDIC-ECV Contracts (Module 1) Course, Brussels, 3-4 Mar 08
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Young Professionals
2008
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Participants from a record breaking 69 countries who participated in the FIDIC 2007 Singapore conference on 9-13 September were able to hear keynote speakers from the Asian Development Bank, bilateral funding agencies (Japan International Cooperation Agency; Japan Bank for International Cooperation) and leading contractors (Leighton Asia) and consultants (Maunsell-AECOM) explore their changing relationships, especially within the construction sector which dominates investment decisions for infrastructure. The conference was opened by Mah Bow Tan, Singapore's Minister of National Development, following a magnificent welcome reception the evening before at the impressive Asian Civilisations Museum, which was hosted by the Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore. The Minister is seen in the photo being welcomed to the conference by Jorge Diaz Padilla, then FIDIC President, with John Boyd, the new FIDIC President on the left. The Minister, after being introduced by Lim Pheng Hong, the conference chair (photo below), reflected on globalisation and the relationships between countries in the development of modern economies. He stressed the major role played by consulting engineers, who are often leaders in bringing the benefits of best practice. New models for collaboration are being implemented as projects become larger and more complex. Roles within the project team are also changing, and new opportunities are being created through partnering to find innovative ideas to meet the challenging requirements for high quality projects.
On the second day, some 37 speakers from 15 countries shared a wealth of views and experience in nine interactive workshops that addressed carefully selected topics. Presentations are available on the conference website, 
The Executive Committee tackled once again a broad range of strategic and management issues. It approved publication of the Pre-Press Seminar Edition of the FIDIC Design, Build and Operate Contract (see 
Close to 50 enthusiastic young managers from 20 countries (see photo) ended the FIDIC 2007 Young Professionals Management Training Programme with training sessions and a Young Leaders Workshop at the FIDIC 2007 Singapore Conference (9-13 September; presentation available on www.fidic2007.org in 
A special seminar attended by some 100 participants that was held immediately after the FIDIC 2007 Singapore Conference launched the long awaited FIDIC Design, Build and Operate Contract (see 
At its last meeting, the FIDIC Capacity Building Committee (CBC) decided to update and upgrade the FIDIC Guide to Practice Training Manual - The business of a professional services firm. Presented in modules, with each module covering a specific area of consulting engineering practice, the manual aims to provide basic knowledge of good practice. Its primary targets are firms in developing countries and the training of new intake in firms in developed countries. Each module involves a few training sessions, is not exhaustive and contains references for further reading. No more than three training sessions, each of two hours, is generally required. The modules do not compete with or replace the one- to three-day training courses on the different topics supplied by FIDIC that use the modules as the scope of the course content. Since several of the topics covered by the modules derive from existing documents prepared by FIDIC committees, the CBC thinks that the best approach for reviewing and updating existing modules and introducing new modules is to request committees to prepare or update their relevant modules, with certain modules being updated by CBC. Bayo Adeola, the CBC chair, has asked committee chairs to support this effort, which is planned to finish by the FIDIC 2008 Quebec Conference, 
The World Bank aims to proceed with the development of a new programme aimed at assessing the capacity of borrowing countries for internal procurement management. This has long been one of the bank's (and indeed most multinational development banks') policies for the development of borrowing countries. Considerable effort has gone into addressing the concerns raised over the last two years from a number of stakeholders and organisations such as FIDIC. FIDIC has assessed the World Bank's latest proposal on the use of country systems. Although the direct impact on the consulting engineering industry is minimal, there are potential impacts on broader procurement in the countries selected for a pilot programme. Details on the Methodology for Procurement Country Systems Piloting Programme can be found at