Issue 4: September 2019
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the fourth edition of FIDIC CEO Update, our bi-monthly round-up to keep FIDIC member associations up to date on the latest work of FIDIC and to take a forward look at future initiatives and events. As I write this latest update, clearly the focus is on the preparations for our forthcoming annual international infrastructure conference in Mexico City, where we have assembled an excellent line-up of speakers and an amazing social programme for delegates and visitors to enjoy. More on that later...
Since my last update in June, it’s been a very busy few months with several key events and initiatives that have helped to build FIDIC’s profile on the global stage. Some of the highlights are listed below. I hope that you enjoy the update and as always, I welcome any feedback, questions or ideas you wish to send me.
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Memorandums of understanding signed with key organisations
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Recent months have seen FIDIC sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreements with a number of key stakeholders.
In May we signed an agreement with the King’s College London Centre of Construction Law to co-organise a summer school on the FIDIC contracts and their practical use. The project with the college is FIDIC’s first-ever contract training collaboration with a European university and we hope it will lead to the establishment of an internationally recognised executive educational training programme.
In July, we announced a ground-breaking MoU with the China International Contractors Association to improve collaboration between international and Chinese businesses, facilitate skills and knowledge transfer and increase the understanding and use of FIDIC contracts and earlier this month we announced an MoU with the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry to train government engineers and other construction professionals in the use of FIDIC contracts.
During my trip to Manila, I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet the board of FIDIC national association, the Council of
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Engineering Consultants of Philippines (CECOPHIL), to be updated on their national challenges and opportunities.
This meeting was followed with a pit-stop at the Asian Development Bank procurement team, led by Jeff Taylor, to advocate the for the bank to adopt the FIDIC 2017 suite of contracts, as part of our on-going dialogue with the global multilateral development banks. Similarly, an exploratory collaboration meeting was held with Mohamed Ali Janah, chairman of the International Federation of Asia and Western Pacific Contractors Association, and his Manila team. I am positive that these relationships will lead to us converting agreements to better position FIDIC standards in the near future.
Another MoU, signed with the China Engineering and Consulting Association to improve collaboration between international and Chinese businesses and to improve the competence of Chinese consultants when working with FIDIC contracts, was announced last week.
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Launch of FIDIC Golden Principles
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In June, I was delighted to see the launch of the FIDIC Golden Principles guide at our Hong Kong contract users’ conference, which set out the essential characteristics of FIDIC’s general conditions of contract that should not be amended if the contract is to be regarded as a genuine FIDIC contract. We have |
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taken the step to publish the Golden Principles to safeguard the integrity of FIDIC contracts and to ensure that employers, contractors and the public are not misled about what is and what isn’t a bone fide FIDIC contract. The Golden Principles guide is the output of the work of a FIDIC task group (TG15) which has done some excellent and important work in this area under the leadership of task group chair Husni Madi. The Hong Kong programme also provided the platform to launch our second FIDIC Contract Users’ Newsletter, which is now a feature of all future users’ conferences. We are delighted to have good content contributions from stakeholders and welcome wider participation by member associations and wider stakeholders.
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FIDIC contract agreement with Caribbean Development Bank
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Also, in July, we concluded an agreement with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) that will see the international funding organisation adopt the use of nine FIDIC standard contracts for the next five years. CDB is the leading source for development financing in the Caribbean and is committed to supporting inclusive and sustainable growth and good governance in the region. We are delighted that the CDB has agreed to use our 2017 editions of the Rainbow suite of contracts, as well as the 1999 editions, as an accepted form of
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contract for use with their standard bidding documents. This will create more certainty in the market as by facilitating the use of FIDIC contacts on major projects the CDB is saying that they endorse the fair and balanced approach that these documents offer to parties on major construction contracts.
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New YP management training programme
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I can also announce that we have signed an agreement with DFS to develop a new management leadership training certificate programme for young professionals. The launch of this initiative will coincide with a special announcement by the FIDIC Young Professionals group to be made at the FIDIC conference in Mexico City.
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The first year of the programme will begin in January 2020 and conclude in September 2020 in Geneva. I am looking forward to working with Robin Crouch, Ben Novak and their team in delivering this programme. On behalf of the FIDIC board, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Steen Frederiksen, who initiated the Young Professionals Management Training Programme during the FIDIC Conference in Copenhagen 2004, for his outstanding contribution to the initiative.
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ASPAC conference in New Delhi
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I was pleased to attend the ASPAC conference in India from 7-9 July 2019 which provided a fantastic opportunity to meet the ASPAC board and discuss with them FIDIC’s new regional strategy.
There was a particular focus during our discussions on how to leverage on the new FIDIC agreements with the development banks and building
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training and capacity across the region. The conference itself was well attended, with sustainable infrastructure taking centre stage and delegates discussing and debating the main conference theme of “Quality Infrastructure for Clean and Sustainable Development”.
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Looking ahead to FIDIC’s future
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Looking forward to the future, we currently have a three-year FIDIC corporate plan which ends in 2020 and to help with our planning for the next plan we are conducting three important surveys to help inform its development. The first is a survey of member associations to find out your views on what you want to see from FIDIC. Secondly, we are undertaking a strategic review of the regional strategy to ensure that we best define the most effective global approach with all FIDIC’s large regional groupings, to regionalise more and find the right engagement approach. We still have some work to do, but things are progressing well
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and FIDIC board member Tony Barry has done some excellent consultation work in this area and we expect feedback from member associations in Mexico. Thirdly, we are in the process of analysing the results of the recent FIDIC contract users survey. The outcome of these three consultation exercises should help us inform FIDIC’s future activities and direction.
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Speaking at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank congress
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I was also delighted to be invited to speak at the annual event of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, held this year in Luxembourg. The multilateral development bank is an influential body which aims to support the building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region and within the Belt & Road initiative corridor. The bank currently has 72 members as well as 28 prospective members from around the world and their
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annual congress provided an opportunity to highlight how FIDIC cooperates with multilateral development banks and to call for a consistent approach to procurement on the global stage. We used the opportunity to also engage the AIIB with a view to adopt the FIDIC suite of contracts and also to seek FIDIC training support for their future projects. We hope to ensure their endorsement in due course.
During my visit to Luxembourg, I also took the opportunity to meet with FIDIC member association, the OAI, for some very useful discussions about FIDIC’s future plans and to receive feedback on our work from an active and influential MA.
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Upgrading the FIDIC website
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Visitors to our website will have noticed that it has undergone a major upgrade, in terms of its look and feel and its functionality. The newly redesigned site is more
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mobile-friendly than before and we have restructured the content and narrative of the site, while improving its performance and load time and making it more accessible to all users especially those on mobile and tablet devices. As well as the website upgrade, the FIDIC office infrastructure is now located in the cloud, making global remote working possible and paving the way for a larger, globally distributed team enabling FIDIC to become a more agile and efficient organisation.
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All eyes on Mexico City next month
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As you will all be aware, September sees the 2019 FIDIC International Infrastructure Conference take place in Mexico City. Working with our member association CNEC, we have assembled an absolutely first-rate conference programme which will address the key issues facing
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our industry as we face the challenges of increasing digitalisation. The conference is the annual opportunity for the FIDIC family to come together and share ideas, experiences, discuss and debate, learn and network. There is nowhere quite like it in our calendar and I hope as many of you as possible can take the opportunity to attend the event. The social programme is also something else and the conference tours are breathtaking. You really won’t want to miss it!
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Thanks for reading this latest update. I look forward to seeing many of you in Mexico City from 7-10 September and to updating you again in issue number five of the CEO Update, which should be landing in your inbox in early December.
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With best wishes,
Dr Nelson Ogunshakin FICE, OBE
Chief Executive, FIDIC
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Text Box
Checklist
Robin Crouch has over 30 years of experience in consulting engineering.
Ben Novak holds a BEng and a Diploma in Business Administration from McGill University, Montreal. His masters in city planning is from the University of Manitoba. He is a now senior consultant in corporate management of consulting businesses and a certified FIDIC trainer who specialises in corporate services and corporate management training. 
Andrew Steeves has more than 30 years with ADI Limited Andrew has lectured to consultants on a wide range of topics including profitability, career paths for young professionals, procurement methods and business planning. A FIDIC-accredited trainer, he was also a mentor on FIDIC’s Young Professionals Management Training Programme (the predecessor to FFLMC)
John Ritchie has over 40 years of experience as a senior executive in the consulting industry with hydropower and water resources project experience in Canada and Asia. He is on the board of directors of a Canadian hydro-based
Richard served as chair of FIDIC’s Young Professionals Forum Steering Committee from 2006-2008. As a member of the FIDIC Integrity Management Committee, Richard worked to develop and roll out FIMS, the FIDIC Integrity Management System. Richard has been involved with professional activities outside the United States since 1996, working in the US Air Force as an engineer. 
Michael Walker specialised in environmental engineering, at the University of Alberta, Canada. At the University of Alaska, he studied arctic engineering. Michael has a long history with FIDIC through the Canadian Association of Consulting Companies (ACEC-Canada) and was a graduate of FIDIC’s Young Professionals Management Training Programme (the predecessor to FFLMC). 
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