Contract Users update

FIDIC contracts community goes from strength to strength

Despite Covid challenges, the past 12 months has seen the profile of FIDIC contracts grow, with more opportunities for users to connect than ever before. As the profile of our contracts increases, with more and more clients and funding bodies seeing these industry standard documents as their contract of choice in challenging times, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that FIDIC engages more effectively and closely with its contract users at every level.

FIDIC has looked to respond to the increasing interest in its contracts by ensuring that it took steps to build up its contracts community by providing more opportunities for users to connect and to network. During the pandemic, FIDIC was quick to respond by issuing key guidance to users outlining the provisions in FIDIC’s various general conditions of contract which might be relevant regarding likely scenarios that were arising as a consequence of the challenges raised by the Covid crisis. This guidance was well received and appreciated by users across the global industry.

Over the past year, FIDIC has also sought to further strengthen its contract community by organising more training and holding a series of regional contract users’ conferences to give users the opportunity to hear about the latest developments from experts in the contracts and legal arena. It was around a year ago that FIDIC took the decision to take the running of its contract users’ conferences in house and the past year has seen Official FIDIC Contract Users’ Conferences being held online across three regions – Africa and the Middle East, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. In addition, an international contract users’ event and the third FIDIC Contract Users’ Awards was also organised at the end of last year and we are looking forward to hosting an in-person international conference and awards event in London in November 2022.

These important Official FIDIC Contract Users’ Conference events offered attendees a unique opportunity to share progress on the application and use of FIDIC contracts around the world and were attended by a range of stakeholders including MDBs, private sector organisations and clients, government, engineers, contractors, investors, consultants and other stakeholders who have an interest in FIDIC contracts. We are currently examining the feedback received from these conferences to make further improvements and enhancements for future events over the coming year.

We are also grateful for the support of our contract users’ conference sponsors for their input over the past 12 months. Thank you to our headline sponsors international law firm CMS and also our other valued partners - risk mitigation consultants HKA, construction and energy law firm Fenwick Elliott and Changaroth International Consultancy.

Alongside these events, FIDIC has also been building up its Official Contract Users’ LinkedIn group to provide a platform where members can be amongst the first to hear of the latest FIDIC contract users’ news, events, training and offers and to provide a forum where they can compare experiences with other contract users on the most common challenges facing the industry. The group and the contract users’ conferences are also providing a conduit into FIDIC to

help brainstorm ideas, creativity and innovation for the future development of FIDIC contracts.

The past year has also seen the publication of two further editions of the FIDIC Contract Users’ Newsletter, which is circulated widely to industry stakeholders in the contracts arena. The next issue of the newsletter is due to be published to coincide with our Official FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference in London.

The increasing number of opportunities to connect our contracts community are set to continue into 2022. As Daduna Kokhreidze, FIDIC’s general counsel, says: “We are proud that FIDIC contracts are highly regarded and widely used by the global industry but with that support comes the responsibility to continue to support that community of users further. Next year will see more contract users’ events, more engagement and a stepping up of our activities to ensure that we maintain the position of FIDIC contracts as the documents of choice for the global construction sector.”

All the services that FIDIC provides help to develop the infrastructure to serve people, communities, businesses and governments. These services also address the issues of quality, sustainability and resilience and drive excellence in leadership, project and risk management while condemning bribery and corruption and promoting safety, diversity, equal opportunity and inclusiveness. FIDIC contracts are crucial in underpinning and delivering this agenda and that is why our FIDIC contracts ecosystem is so important, valuable and worth nurturing. It’s also why we will ensure that we continue to strengthen it going forward. 33