FIDIC Annual Report 2022/2023

About FIDIC

FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, is the global representative body for national associations of consulting engineers and represents over one million engineering professionals and 40,000 firms in around 100 countries worldwide.

Founded in 1913 and celebrating its 110th anniversary this year, FIDIC is charged with promoting and implementing the consulting engineering industry’s strategic goals on behalf of its member associations (MAs) and to disseminate information and resources of interest to its members. Today, FIDIC’s global membership covers a combined population in excess of 6.5 billion people and a combined GDP in excess of $30 trillion. The global industry including construction is estimated to be worth over $22 trillion. This means that FIDIC member associations across the various countries are an industry worth over $8.5 trillion.

Through its comprehensive range of market-leading construction contracts, FIDIC also provides the industry with a framework of contractual documentation and procurement guidance which has underpinned many of the world’s landmark construction and infrastructure projects. FIDIC’s standard construction contracts are highly regarded and widely used across the international engineering, construction and infrastructure industry.

FIDIC’s key role and that of its member associations around the world is to improve people’s quality of life through the promotion of quality, integrity and sustainability in the infrastructure industry and the projects and services it delivers on a global scale. In so doing, the organisation plays a leading role in a global industry sector that does so much to benefit the lives of citizens in every continent around the world.

FIDIC Board

Anthony Barry (President)

Australia

Catherine Karakatsanis (President Elect)

Canada

Luis Villarroya (Vice President)

Spain

Sarwono Hardjomuljadi

Indonesia

James Mwangi

Kenya

Chantal Dagnaud

France

Martina Hess

Zambia

Manish Kothari

United States of America

Alfredo Ingletti

Italy

José Joaquín Ortiz

Colombia

Nelson Ogunshakin (Chief Executive)

It is my great pleasure to be able to write this message as your FIDIC president, but I do so with sadness in noting the death of past president Dr Jorge Diaz Padilla. I am sure I speak for all in appreciating his contribution to FIDIC and our industry. We commemorate Jorge’s life and contribution to FIDIC later in this report.

Global situation

While Covid-19 has been with us for over three years, many parts of the world are working to a post-Covid normal. The industry has developed new ways of working remotely and is doing so for a significant proportion of time. Hybrid working has become the norm, in some cases challenging collaboration, creativity and productivity and for others expanding the resources firms may access. Sadly, the war in Ukraine continues, as do a number of serious conflicts throughout the world, most recently in Sudan. The war in Ukraine initiated an energy crisis, inflation took hold of many economies and central banks continue to take measures to bring it down.

Industry position

Despite the challenges, some countries have embarked on significant infrastructure programmes which provide very significant opportunity for our industry and are driving innovation to deliver them. Many institutions have begun to plan for the massive reconstruction effort that will be required to re-build accommodation and infrastructure in Ukraine. At the same time, much of the world’s population,

President’s message

which is itself growing, does not have access to basic services and the infrastructure gap to provide those services is growing.

Amid so many complex issues, we are only beginning to move on the changes needed to address the impact of climate change and climate related events. The time has come where the world is looking to engineers for the solutions that are achievable and sustainable. Will we be able to decarbonise infrastructure? Will we be able to provide infrastructure which is sustainable? Will we develop carbon absorptive technologies and nature-based solutions to take carbon out of our atmosphere? Will re-imagining agriculture technologies provide the solutions? Will we be able to deliver renewable energy and transmission systems to support it, soon enough to avoid catastrophic temperature rise? Will we be able to repair the damage caused by increasingly violent climatic events and build resilience into existing infrastructure to retain its functionality?

As your industry body, FIDIC is being asked these questions and has galvanised industry to focus on these issues. We are well placed to do so and are working on many aspects of the challenge. Key to building the collaboration to address this challenge, we are establishing the FIDIC Foundation.

Strategy execution

Amidst this complexity, FIDIC has continued to drive forward to deliver on its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan. Our 2017-2020 Strategic Plan set us on a trajectory of significant change and our 2020-2024 Strategic Plan continued and developed our ambition further. Executing the plan has been my primary focus. At our May board meeting, we reviewed the status and began the process of planning for 2024-2028.

While in some ways, the Covid-19 pandemic set us back significantly impacting our revenues, we have been able to take the opportunities presented to us and build our new programmes and our brand. Nonetheless, we are behind where we like to be in terms of our investments in people and systems, in funding and resourcing the regions and in member association development. I’m sure that further

Tony Barry, FIDIC president.

steps will be taken to strengthen and improve in these areas going forward as we continue to develop and evolve FIDIC’s business model.

Regions

In May, FIDIC Africa led by its president Abe Thela held its very vibrant 29th Infrastructure Conference in Livingstone Zambia with over 200 delegates from 31 African countries and five others focussed on green Infrastructure. FIDIC North America region held its first in-person meeting in Chicago under ACEC USA Linda Darr’s leadership. FIDIC Asia, led by president Sudhir Dharwan, will hold its regional conference in Thailand later this year.

While not able to personally attend many events throughout the year, because of financial and time constraints, I have usually participated remotely or provided video messages for these events.

EFCA held its conference and GAM in Rome in late May. I would like to acknowledge past EFCA president, Benoit Clocheret and thank him for his support and cooperation and his contribution to our industry. I would also like to congratulate Ines Ferguson, recently becoming EFCA’s first female president.

FEPAC held its annual meeting in Peru led by president Henrique de Aragao who continues to make a substantial contribution to our industry and FIDIC.

We are seeing the benefits of our regional strategy in addressing issues and needs as well as developing capacity in the regions. We will continue to work with them to develop our approach to better serve MAs and the industry in the regions.

Advisory councils and committees

Our advisory councils and committees continue to deliver for FIDIC and again I express my gratitude to our volunteers across all of these bodies. Their work underpins FIDIC’s leadership of the industry. Much has been done to further refine their terms of reference and their membership to ensure they are fit for purpose and performing. We have over 200 volunteers from 50 countries involved in our work. They are sensational, much appreciated and we would achieve much less without their expertise and their work.

Financial performance

We have been challenged financially in the past few years, like everybody, but we have managed to re-build our revenues slowly to pre-pandemic levels. The nature of the challenge has varied across the years, but nonetheless remains. Subscriptions are around 25% of our revenues and the financial risks in our other activities have and must be closely managed. Vice president, Luis Villaroya Alonso, has provided very effective leadership to the risk and audit committee and support to management.

Leadership, management and staff

Throughout my four years as president, incoming and vice president, I have worked closely with our CEO Dr Nelson Ogunshakin. It has been a great pleasure to do so. His energy, drive and enthusiasm for FIDIC are extraordinary. His professionalism, his leadership and the level of achievement he strives for are fantastic. I pay tribute to him and extend my appreciation to him for all he has done and achieved over his first five years as our FIDIC CEO.

I know that FIDIC could not achieve what it does without a great team. Our team is fantastic. It is more diverse than ever. The team has grown considerably and cost effectively in recent years, working in Switzerland, China, France, Greece, Serbia and the United Kingdom.

Thank you

I would like to acknowledge and thank, May, my wife, for her outstanding support throughout my career and particularly during my eight years on the FIDIC board. I have been able to achieve so much more because of her advice, wise counsel and guidance.

It has been a great honour and a privilege to be a board member and FIDIC president and as we celebrate 110 years of achievement and global contribution by FIDIC, I have had the benefit of building on the work of past presidents and hundreds of volunteers and staff who have built the FIDIC brand over that 110 years.

I know that under the leadership of our first female president, Catherine Karakatsanis, we can look forward to an even stronger future for FIDIC, our industry and our world. I wish her all the best for her presidency and her leadership of FIDIC.

“Amid so many complex issues, we are only beginning to move on the changes needed to address the impact of climate change and climate related events.”

FIDIC chief executive’s report

It’s always a pleasure to write my update for the FIDIC Annual Report and this year, as we celebrate the 110th anniversary of the organisation’s formation, that pleasure is even greater as we reflect on more than a century of representing our members and making a positive difference to and impact on the world which they develop and shape through their members’ valuable work.

Once again, the past 12 months has seen FIDIC take further steps forward across all areas of its operations and organisation. We have been able to achieve these improvements thanks in no small part to the leadership shown by our president Tony Barry, our dedicated board members, the volunteers who work hard on FIDIC’s many committees and advisory councils and as part of the FIDIC Academy and of course our excellent and hard-working staff whose efforts keep the FIDIC show on the road throughout each and every year.

As president Tony Barry outlined in his update, our industry continues to face many challenges, but out of every challenge there comes opportunity and FIDIC and the industry it represents has always taken a positive and optimistic view throughout its history and it is one of the reasons why we are still going strong today after 110 years. We have constantly adapted to change, taken initiatives and sought to show leadership on behalf of the industry and this we have done over the past 12 months also.

In the post-pandemic world we are now in, we have remained flexible and agile and continued to increase FIDIC’s resources, both in terms of our staff and the volunteers that we can call on.

Operations

Our in-house FIDIC events team has delivered a very successful series of events over the last 12 months including the Global Infrastructure Conference 2022 in Geneva, the Official FIDIC International Contract Users Conference in London in November 2022 which returned to an in-person event after the pandemic and our first in-person FIDIC Global

Leadership Forum (GLF) Summit in Geneva, with more than 50 of the industry’s top people, bringing together about 40% of total membership of the GLF.

The GLF Summit in April was a very productive one, culminating in a number of significant reports focussing on decarbonising infrastructure, which will be publicly launched at our 2023 Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore.

The FIDIC contracts team launched the 2022 FIDIC contract reprints and the second volume of the FIDIC Contracts Guide in London and the progress on translation of the full contracts suite and publication of Mandarin, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic versions are also progressing very well. The team has also continued with strengthening our relationships with the more than ten multilateral development banks that have signed licence agreements to use the entire set of the FIDIC contracts globally.

FIDIC Credentialing is delivering all five planned credentialing programmes. In under two years, we have increased the adjudicators to 118 across 42 countries which is well up from the 55 from 16 countries on the President’s List a few years ago. Thank you to Sir Vivian Ramsey and the entire FCL Management Board and Certification Board for their collective leadership of the FIDIC Credentialing operations.

The FIDIC Academy has also made progress under the leadership of Chris Cole as chancellor and the newly established senate and faculties. A new dedicated website

Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, FIDIC chief executive.

was launched during the year and the scope of training offered by the Academy is being widened considerably, beyond traditional contract training, to many areas of business practice and I am confident that this will be well received by our industry.

Connecting with stakeholders

This report also highlights the further progress FIDIC has made in stakeholder engagement, with many new partnerships and strategic agreements signed with influential organisations which will help us widen and deepen our reach into the industry and beyond. As ever, we are grateful to our committees and advisory councils for the excellent work that they do (page 16-21) in liaising with our key stakeholders and developing strategies and road maps for addressing some of the major challenges facing our sector.

Once again, this annual report’s review of the year (page 30-33) highlights the ever-growing scale of the work that FIDIC is carrying out on the industry’s behalf and I know I say this every year but I am always blown away by the ceaseless dedication of our volunteers and staff who continually deliver on behalf of our members and the industry. I know that this work will continue and more than likely increase as FIDIC steps up to the plate to meet the significant challenges facing the organisation and the industry in a fast-changing business and political landscape.

Increasing diversity and inclusion

Last year I highlighted some of the measures we had put in place to ensure that our board and committees better represent the industry and society we represent and I am delighted to report that progress has continued in this area over the past 12 months, as we have striven to make our committees and working groups more diverse and inclusive. We have seen gender diversity well represented in the shortlist for our annual Future Leaders Awards and amongst

the FIDIC staff and of course FIDIC welcomes its first ever female president this year in Catherine Karakatsanis. Notwithstanding these gains, there will be no resting on laurels and I will make it a continuing mission to ensure that FIDIC improves its diversity and inclusion at all levels over the next 12 months and beyond.

Improving our communications

Communications remains of paramount importance to FIDIC and as we continue to increase the range and scope of our activities, we need to ensure that we find new and more effective ways of promoting these to our key audiences and stakeholders. The regular monthly CEO’s Update issued to all our members and stakeholders has continued throughout the year and has become a valuable tool in keeping people aware and informed about what we are doing. Our social media channels are constantly updated and our regular marketing emails to specific interest groups help us to target and hone our message to the right audiences (page 50). Our online news and information platform Infrastructure Global has also become a key part of FIDIC’s communications output and I look forward to seeing this develop further over the coming year.

As the president mentioned in his update, FIDIC’s regional groups have been active over the past year (see also page 44-47) and we really value the important and influential work that they do in spreading the FIDIC message on a global scale.

Supporting our member associations

Of course, central to FIDIC’s activities is to ensure that in everything that we do we remain laser focused on delivering services and other outputs that provide real value and benefits to our member associations, their members and the wider industry. The improvements we have made over the past 12 months to our events and conference capabilities,

“In the post-pandemic world we are now in, we have remained flexible and agile and continued to increase FIDIC’s resources, both in terms of our staff and the volunteers that we can call on.”

our training output via the FIDIC Academy, the expanded work of our committees and advisory councils and our expanded staff resource will all help to improve the service offered to our members, who remain such a vital part of the FIDIC organisation as they have done for more than a century.

Financial viability

The treasurer’s report (page 10-11) show that FIDIC’s finances remain in a relatively healthy position despite the challenges facing the industry. FIDIC is continuing to make strategic investments in several key areas of our operations including the FIDIC Academy, our credentialing programme, business development and marketing as well as continuing to develop new contracts and standards, under the restructured FIDIC Contract Services, to help us generate more revenue from this vital part of our activities. A new FIDIC Strategic Plan will help us to maintain our focus for the next four years as we improve our organisational capacity to ensure that we are better connected and engaging proactively with our global stakeholders at every level and fit for the future.

While it could be said that the Covid-19 pandemic set us back and significantly impacting our revenues, we have been able to grasp the opportunities presented to us and continue to build our new programmes and the FIDIC brand. There are still improvements that we need to make in terms of our investments in people and systems, in funding and resourcing the regions and in member association development but we will take steps to improve all these areas over the next 12 months and beyond. We will also continue to develop the new dynamic business model concept we presented in 2021, in terms of brand, leadership

and financial management. This will no doubt evolve as FIDIC’s needs change and our strategic direction develops further over the coming years.

Concluding thoughts

As I reflect on the past year and a FIDIC that is now 110 years old, together with my five years anniversary of being appointed as FIDC CEO, I do so keenly aware of the organisation’s history, recognition of the transformative achievements made across many fronts over the last five years, but also with a sense of excitement at what is to come in the future. Due to the corporate changes that we have instituted overt recent years and thanks to the excellent leadership of our board and presidents, FIDIC finds itself in excellent shape to both address and capitalise on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing president Tony Barry for his visionary, strategic approach, pragmatic nature and professionalism. And special thanks to his wife, May, for her support during my regular late-night catch-up calls with Tony to ensure the president is fully briefed on FIDIC progress on a weekly basis!

For 110 years, FIDIC’s work has made a significant difference and represented its members and key stakeholders with dedication, determination and distinction. I know that we will continue to build on that illustrious history, under the leadership of our newly elected president Catherine Karakatsanis, by providing the insightful leadership that our industry needs to meet the challenge of change in all the areas in which we work. In this landmark year, we will rededicate ourselves to being the primary go-to organisation for our engineering, construction and infrastructure sector.

Board overview

The board met on four occasions during the 2022-2023 period for regular board meetings in September and December 2022 and in March and May 2023. The board meeting in September 2022 was held in Geneva before the annual FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference 2022 which took place in Geneva, Switzerland. The board meeting in May 2023 was held alongside the FIDIC Africa Conference in Livingstone, Zambia. The next board meeting will be held during the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore in September 2023.

Once again, the FIDIC board has played a vital role in leading and guiding the organisation and the efforts of all board members is very much appreciated. As well as directing the organisation’s response as the world has begun to emerge from the global pandemic, the board has also remained focused on oversight of operational, strategic and governance matters and also represented FIDIC at a range of forums on numerous occasions, enhancing the organisation’s profile, influence and standing within the industry.

Over the past 12 months, during its meetings and in-between times, the board has continued to guide the work of the FIDIC headquarters, the FIDIC committees, played a key role in the delivery of FIDIC’s webinar series, oversaw the implementation of the statutes and by-laws and continued to drive forward the new FIDIC Strategic Plan for 2020-2024, which included the kick-off of the newly structured capacity building initiative, the FIDIC Academy. As reported elsewhere, the board has also taken further

steps forward in its diversity. FIDIC prides itself in having three female board members and with the co-option of one board member enlarged the geographical representation to five continents. This year will also mark the first female FIDIC president since the organisation’s foundation in 1913.

Despite all the ongoing challenges, the board has continued to lead the organisation effectively and efficiently as shown by the activities outlined in this annual report. Once again, this year, board members have led from the front and kept FIDIC on track and well positioned to take advantage of new opportunities going forward.

Elsewhere, this year, the board bids farewell to FIDIC board member Sarwono Hardjomuljadi from Indonesia and to president Tony Barry from Australia, who have both completed their terms of office. Sarwono Hardjomuljadi served the FIDIC board for four years and provided first-hand information about the use of contracts in the Asian area, as well as supporting the regional group FIDIC Asia Pacific. FIDIC is especially grateful to Tony Barry for his long-term dedication to FIDIC. His many initiatives, now well implemented, and his forward thinking in a global context will have a long-lasting sustainable impact on the wellbeing of FIDIC. Both Tony and Sarwono will continue to volunteer for FIDIC in their roles as FIDIC past president and ambassadors respectively.

The board will welcome two new members when they are announced at the general assembly meeting in September 2023.

Risk and audit committee report

After the year 2021, in which FIDIC returned to positive results, the year 2022 was budgeted as a year of investment to achieve all the objectives set for this year in the Strategic Plan, with an important commitment to reinforce our resources to be able to deliver our ambitious services to our member associations.

With these assumptions, the 2022 Geneva general assembly meeting approved a year-end forecast with losses of CHF 259,098, but this considered that the lockout situation in China, due to Covid, would end up, allowing FCS normal activity in the last quarter of the year. Unfortunately, the reality was not that as the lockout remained in place throughout the year and prevented any performance in China. As a consequence of this situation, FIDIC ended the year with consolidated losses of CHF 332,158.

All the entities that are part of the FIDIC Group have been audited, with no significant issues arising and without any qualification. Auditors BDO, through its Geneva office, audited the FIDIC and FCL reports, while the BEIJING PUHONGDE CPA Co firm was responsible for the FCS audit.

Individually, FIDIC ended the year with a negative result of CHF 75,774, significantly improving the budgeted loss of CHF 179,389. For its part, FCL also improved the expected

result, going from a profit of CHF 11,294 budgeted to a profit of CHF 18,032. The exception has been FCS, for the reasons already mentioned above, which increased the expected losses from CHF 91,003 to the CHF 274,416 finally obtained.

The economic performance of FIDIC has behaved pretty much in line with the budget. Revenues were CHF 4,796K, CHF 135,562 lower than expected, mainly due to lower intercompany charges due to less services provided to subsidiaries. Expenses have remained under tight control ending at CHF 4,871K, a saving of CHF 99,177 over the budget. The greatest savings have been produced in the ‘Other’ category by greatly restricting the costs for ‘Special Projects’, managing to reduce this area by CHF 157,633.

Despite the losses for the year, the FIDIC balance sheet continues to be very solid with a total capital of CHF 1,783K, a cash position of CHF 1,794K and considerable solvency, having current assets of CHF 2,692K against Current Liabilities of CHF 0.88K.

With regard to FIDIC Credentialing (FCL), the activity has been lower than expected, ending with revenues of CHF 461,310 compared to the forecasted CHF 532,000, with a slight drop in all business lines of this company. Corresponding to the drop in income, there has been a proportional drop in expenses, which has allowed the year to end with a slightly better result than budgeted.

China, FIDIC Consulting Services (FCS). Despite the fact that everything seemed to indicate otherwise, the Chinese authorities did not proceed to cancel the limitations imposed by the Covid epidemic, preventing all activities planned for the last quarter of 2022. After analysing it, it was decided to maintain all the company’s resources in order to create some certainty of a prompt normalisation of the activity. Considering that, despite these negative results, the total balance of FCS’s activity is frankly positive. In the end, the income was RMB 511,041 with expenses of RMB 2,573K, resulting in losses of CHF 274,416.

Maintaining the practice established in previous years, we held a meeting with the BDO accounting partner responsible for our audit reports in order to find out their opinion on the process. The auditor’s comments indicated full collaboration and transparency throughout the audit as well as a positive opinion regarding all internal control procedures and accounting systems.

At the end of the year, 2022 has been affected, financially speaking, by two fundamental factors. The investments to continue developing the provisions of the FIDIC Strategic Plan and by the continuity of the negative Covid effects in China. We understand that FCS’s activity will soon recover and that the investments made will represent a significant improvement in the service to member associations in the short-medium term, as well as a notable increase in future income.

Incoming president’s message

I am extremely honoured to be able to serve my profession and industry through FIDIC. Since joining the board, I have been impressed with all those I have had the privilege of working and interacting with – FIDIC’s president Tony Barry, vice president and treasurer Luis Villarroya and the rest of my fellow board members. I’ve also been impressed by FIDIC’s CEO Nelson Ogunshakin, the FIDIC staff team, the many volunteers, member associations and our stakeholders. Given the size of the organisation and resources, I believe FIDIC is delivering excellent value and as I look back on the last couple of years, so much has been accomplished.

As the incoming president and chair of the board I am excited to work with my fellow board members. Each is an accomplished, dedicated professional in our industry who has volunteered their considerable wisdom and expertise and their valuable time to work together to achieve the goals that we as a board, in partnership with FIDIC’s CEO and the secretariat, have set and will set for the organisation. In 2024, the current strategic plan will end and a new one will be developed. The board will work together to fulfil our mandate and ensure that we are aligned with our founding principles of quality, integrity and sustainability. We will work to support the vital role that FIDIC plays in representing, advocating and supporting its MAs and their firms, including providing the many member services, while respecting regional differences and needs.

Building on a year of success

This last year has been a successful one for FIDIC. Tony and Nelson have described in detail the many important achievements in their reports, but I wanted to highlight a few notable initiatives that were executed because of the excellent work and dedication of the committee and task force members, the secretariat and the board. These achievements include the following.

• Excellent progress made on the 2020-2024 FIDIC Strategic Plan

• The progression of the FIDIC Academy, with a governance structure implemented.

• Updating of FIDIC contract documents and the strengthening of our partnership with the global multilateral development banks through their increased commitment to use FIDIC contracts on their projects.

• The bringing together of over 100 industry leaders from all over the world in the newly formed FIDIC Global Leadership Forum to play a key role in helping to address global challenges and creating a united, influential, international voice for the infrastructure industry.

• Promotion of the FIDIC diversity and inclusion (D&I) policy and guidance document to engage and help companies on the application of practical actions to transition to D&I work environments.

• The many webinars and guidance memorandums which were developed by our committee and task force members, board members, staff, stakeholder, and expert guest speakers, helping FIDIC reach a global audience of many thousands.

• Organisation of the global infrastructure and contract users conferences which were delivered in-house with strong attendance both virtually and in person.

Catherine Karakatsanis, FIDIC president-elect.

• The issuing of more FIDIC State of the World reports, including the most recent editions on digital technology, the path to net zero and on tackling corruption.

• The launch of a new FIDIC digital transformation committee to monitor and identify changes in digital technology and techniques to help identify issues and trends that could be potential disruptors to FIDIC, its MAs,and the wider industry.

• Further promotion of the FIDIC Climate Change Charter setting out specific actions to be taken by individual engineers, companies, MAs and project teams to reduce and eventually eliminate carbon emissions from our sector.

All this impressive work was accomplished under the excellent leadership of our inspiring president Tony Barry, who has worked long hours in enthusiastic support of our industry and FIDIC. He was very well supported by our talented board members, a very capable and diligent CEO, the excellent FIDIC secretariat and our dedicated volunteers, MAs and stakeholders. I am proud of what we have accomplished and I feel privileged to work alongside all these dedicated individuals. I give my heartfelt thanks to all.

Looking ahead...

Looking ahead, as president, I will work hard and apply my experience to continue to support FIDIC and progress the excellent work and initiatives that are underway. I have worked and volunteered in consulting engineering continuously for over three decades. As a structural engineer and the chief operating officer of Morrison Hershfield, a consulting engineering and management firm, I am familiar with, and indeed still experience, the many challenges facing our industry - challenges that I believe FIDIC helps the member firms address.

I know first-hand that our industry is in a position to directly enhance the wellbeing of society through the critical work we do. The world is facing pressing challenges on many fronts including clean water, clean and affordable energy, good health, infrastructure needs and climate change, all amid wide disparities in standards of living and the threat of an unstable world. Our industry will therefore continue to be as important and vital as ever. We are in the enviable position that a public otherwise worried about the future can trust us as professionals who put the public welfare above all else. This is where FIDIC steps in.

I believe that by working together globally, we can meet these challenges. That makes FIDIC more relevant than ever. FIDIC is the ideal vehicle to provide a global perspective and facilitate collective action to address these issues and advance the industry effectively by bringing together and leveraging the talent and knowledge of our member associations and their member firms.

Some thank yous

On a personal note, I want to express my immense gratitude to Tony Barry for his support, guidance and mentorship. He has contributed so much to FIDIC and to our industry and although he will no longer be on the board, I know that his contributions will continue. I also want to thank the other board members, with whom it has been a joy to collaborate and I look forward to working with the new board. Thanks again to Nelson and the secretariat for their support and encouragement, to the MAs and to the many volunteers and stakeholders. I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can during my term and I hope that you will continue to support FIDIC in its vital work.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

“We are in the enviable position that a public otherwise worried about the future can trust us as professionals who put the public welfare above all else.”

The Global Leadership Forum (GLF) became fully established this year and delivered a full programme of activity, bringing together industry leaders from across the global infrastructure sector to focus on the key issues facing industry and society and to propose solutions to key issues. These activities included the GLF Summit, which took place in Geneva in April 2023 and the publication of four thought leadership reports (see reports in column, right), which marked the culmination of the first year’s GLF think tank programme.

GLF Summit 2023

The first ever GLF Summit was successfully staged in Geneva in April 2023. It was inspiring to see industry leaders coming together in a spirit of collaboration with the key aim of discussing the issues and challenges facing society and the wider infrastructure sector and mapping out strategies to address those challenges.

The exclusive event brought together 50 of the world’s most senior leaders in the infrastructure sector. Summit delegates discussed a number of reports from the GLF think tank programme and received briefings and engaged in deep discussions on topics such as accelerating decarbonisation, the sector’s market sentiment, the investment route to net zero, cyber security and collaborating to make a difference.

Global Leadership Forum update

Bertrand Piccard, founder of Solar Impulse Foundation and the first man to fly around the world in a solar-powered plane, opened the summit as a keynote speaker by telling global infrastructure leaders how vital it is that they set a collective direction for the infrastructure sector to enable innovation and the adoption of low carbon solutions.

The conclusion of the summit was that global infrastructure leaders made a firm commitment that the infrastructure sector must take a lead on decarbonisation and advocate more greener investment in projects that make a positive difference to people’s lives and the planet.

Following the summit, members of the think tank programme undertook further work to shape and fine tune the reports discussed at the event, which were published exclusively to all members in the few months that followed. All reports will be published to the wider global infrastructure community at the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore in September 2023.

Global Leadership Forum Sustainable Infrastructure reports

With support and leadership from the GLF advisory board, four think tank reports were commissioned and

produced a collection of thought leadership pieces which were published as part of the Global Leadership Forum Sustainable Infrastructure report series (see reports in column, right).

FIDIC would like to thank the GLF advisory board and all those members of the GLF who attended the summit in Geneva and who provided valuable insight and input into the four papers presented.

Particular thanks also go to our strategic partners in our first year, which included EY, Schneider Electric, Ramboll and Arcadis who all contributed to the GLF Summit and the think tank programme. This established these organisations as thought leadership partners to the Global Leadership Forum as they provided insight and knowledge to support transformation and growth in the global infrastructure sector as organisations work to find solutions to global challenges.

Conclusion

In conclusion, FIDIC believes it has set a firm foundation for the future of the Global Leadership Forum to achieve its objective of providing a forum for leaders in the global infrastructure sector to connect with peers from around the world to share knowledge and to discuss solutions to major issues facing them, their leadership teams and organisations. In addition, FIDIC is providing insight and knowledge to GLF members’ organisations to support transformation and growth and the implementation of solutions to challenges and opportunities facing the global infrastructure sector.

We look forward to the coming year’s programme of activity which will see a second GLF Summit staged in Geneva, Switzerland in April 2024 and the think tank programme continuing on the topics of artificial intelligence, skills and capacity, decarbonisation and market sentiment.

Closing the Sustainable Infrastructure Gap to Hit Net Zero

Produced in collaboration with strategic partner EY, this report holds critical insights and recommendations that highlight the essential role of the engineering sector in combating climate change and achieving global net zero targets.

This report answers four key questions:

1. What is the gap in sustainable infrastructure funding required to achieve net zero?

2. What are the required changes in net zero sustainable infrastructure investment by region and sector?

3. What are the recommendations to close this gap?

4. What commitments has the GLF made to drive progress

Decarbonisation of Infrastructure

Produced in collaboration with Ramboll and Arcadis, the objective of this report is to promote collaboration and to collate best practice approaches to assist the acceleration of decarbonisation in the global infrastructure sector. This first piece of work considers best practice when applying scope 3 carbon emissions, focusing on downstream activities in the first instance.

Infrastructure and Climate Change

Prepared by FIDIC president Tony Barry, this report delves into the critical nexus between infrastructure development and its impact on climate change.

It will be a valuable resource for policymakers, industry professionals and stakeholders involved in infrastructure development, as well as to aid the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Thanks go to professor Peter Guthrie, vice-president, Royal Academy of Engineering UK and director of research in sustainable development at Cambridge University, Tracey Ryan and Robert Spencer, chair and vice chair of the FIDIC sustainability committee and also members of the committee itself who contributed to the report.

Market Sentiment

Thanks to input from GLF members and wider FIDIC stakeholders who completed the first sentiment survey in the early part of 2023, the GLF was able to share insight into the state of the global infrastructure market with delegates ahead of the GLF Summit. This report will now be a regular feature throughout the year, with the second report due for publication to coincide with the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore in 2023.

GLF Sustainable Infrastructure reports

Update on FIDIC’s committees and advisory councils

The work of FIDIC’s committees and advisory councils form a crucial part of the organisation’s interaction with its key stakeholders and the wider industry. Over the past 12 months, these bodies have continued to ensure that FIDIC builds and strengthens its links with stakeholders and grows its influence across the global engineering, construction and infrastructure industry.

Currently FIDIC has five active committees and three advisory councils. The previous Business Practice Leadership Committee (BPLC) and the International Financial Institutions Committee (IFIC) have both been revamped with new terms of reference. The BPLC now includes the creation of four standing task groups - Contractor & Consultant Selection, Procurement, Risk & Liability and Quality. FIDIC has also appointed new members and chairs for these two committees. The BPLC is now chaired by Manuel Perez, CEO of WSP Spain and Suraj Rana, managing director of DT Global International Development UK is the new chair of the IFIC.

Both committees’ memberships have been revitalised with attention being paid to respect geographical and gender diversity in their selection and both have already met for introductions and induction and hope to meet in-person in Singapore in September. The revamping of these two committees will bring the number of FIDIC active committees to seven.

Brief updates on the work of each of the currently active FIDIC committees and advisory councils appear below.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council

Update from the chair, Dr Michele Kruger, Functional General Manager Water and Environment, SMEC South Africa.

FIDIC’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Advisory Council (DEIAC) has come a long way from its inception in 2017, while sitting around the table. We have gone through our ups and downs and now we are happy to go forward with our newly revamped advisory council, consisting of nine members. Those nine members provide a diversity of input on multiple levels including regional, gender, cultural background, working environment and organization and the full list of members can be found on the FIDIC website at https://fidic.org/about-us/councils/diversity-equity-inclusion-advisory-councildeiac

Through its newly constituted task groups, the DEIAC is aiming to confront issues like neurotypical versus neurodiverse colleagues, how can it be made easier for female engineers to continue their career

while having young children and how access to best practices revolving around diversity and equity can be ensured to all members and firms (considering especially the language barrier).

FIDIC’s DEIAC has its work cut out for them and we are proud and eager to start our work. We are here to advise the FIDIC board and secretariat on all aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion in the consulting engineering industry and look forward to advising on how to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in FIDIC at all levels while at the same time promote inclusion, equity and diversity for a sustainable, transparent and more profitable engineering, construction and infrastructure industry.

The DEIAC will also actively support wider representation, equity and inclusion from more diverse groups as influencers in the consulting engineering industry and at the same time, enhance diversity, equity and inclusion by advocating why those principles matter to business, what the benefits are and the most effective and practical measures to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion across the sector.

Contracts Committee

Update from the chair, Vincent Leloup, managing partner of contracts consultancy Exequatur in France.

The elapsed year was a busy one for the FIDIC Contracts Committee (CC), with several significant milestones achieved.

First of all, the much-awaited FIDIC 2017 Contracts Guide was published in conjunction with the 2022 reprints of the 2017 Suite of Contracts (Red, Yellow and Silver Books) and launched at the Official FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference in November 2022 in London. The former edition of the guide, published in 2000, was frequently referred to in the construction industry by practitioners as well as in dispute resolution forums and was highly regarded as a major and persuasive source of authority when it comes to ascertaining the FIDIC intent behind - and the way to construe - the provisions found under those contracts. With 650+ pages of detailed guidance on how to operate the 2017 contracts, the new guide will undoubtedly prove to be very helpful for users of FIDIC forms.

Similar to what the CC did in 2020 for the Covid-19 outbreak, the committee published in March 2023 a detailed guidance memorandum aiming to assist users of its forms of contract to navigate through the current troubled times experienced over recent years, including events like the global inflation of construction inputs costs in the aftermath of the pandemic and exacerbated by the outbreak of the

Ukraine war in February 2022. As already evidenced during the pandemic, those recent events have once more proved how robust FIDIC contracts are, in being equipped with a comprehensive and relevant contractual machinery able to deal with both regular but also exceptional events which may impact a construction project.

On the organisational side, the CC is now nine-member-strong, with the joining of Koray Ates as a representative of the FIDIC Future Leaders Advisory Council. The terms of four CC members, including the current CC chair, are ending this year and discussions are being held as to either extension or replacement options in order to ensure a smooth transition and to keep the CC running efficiently.

The committee now oversees 13 active task groups, with the following new groups having kicked off their work this year - Net-zero provisions for FIDIC Contracts and Offshore windfarm contract.

Finally, the publication of the Guide to the 2019 Emerald Book is planned for the next International Contract Users’ Conference in November 2023 and early 2024 will see the publication of the Bronze Book Test Edition (ODBO form of contract for brownfield projects).

Integrity Management Committee

Update from the chair, Richard Stump, vice president of RS&H in the USA.

Over the past 12 months, FIDIC’s Integrity Management Committee (IMC) has carried out a range of activities in line with its purpose to provide an expert resource for FIDIC on integrity-related matters and to advise the FIDIC board and secretariat on all aspects of integrity management and anti-corruption issues in the consulting engineering industry.

The work of the committee has included engaging with the FIDIC contracts committee to provide anti-corruption wording for the updating of FIDIC contracts, including the White Book 2017 and also looking at other contracts going forward. The IMC has also supported the FIDIC 2022 State of the World report, Corruption, its effects and the need

to take action, by providing input for the report. The committee has also supported the FIDIC Academy where Julianna Fox is a representative to the Academy on integrity training content. Committee members were also active in the organisation and delivery of a successful FIDIC/IMC webinar which was organised to coincide with the 2022 Global Anti-Corruption Day. This webinar served to raise awareness on this important issue and with a view to further highlighting knowledge and awareness of the issues across FIDIC, the committee is looking at

encouraging horizontal linkages and dialogue across all relevant FIDIC committees with members of the IMC.

The committee has also set its members the task of becoming ‘ambassadors for integrity’ in their own countries with the responsibility to engage member associations and/or professional organisations on integrity matters and the work of the IMC. Going forward this role will become part of the accountability portfolio for each IMC member.

Future Leaders Advisory Council

Update from the chair, Rodrigo Juarez, Consultant, FOA Consulting.

Following the 2022 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Geneva, Rodrigo Juarez from FOA Consulting, Mexico began his period as chair of the FIDIC Future Leaders Advisory Council (FLAC). This year has been yet again very busy for the FLAC. Similar to many other FIDIC committees and councils, the FLAC went through a major restructuring. A new call for members was issued at the end of 2022, in which four new members joined the FLAC and Artur Brito from TPF Engenharia, Brazil, was elected as the new vice chair of the council.

With the new composition, we have managed to have representatives from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Furthermore, all of the FLAC members have been assigned to a FIDIC committee and are actively participating and contributing to their activities, making sure that the voice of the future leaders is heard at every level of FIDIC. The chair of the FLAC is participating in FIDIC board meetings, GIC planning meetings and the monthly FLAC meeting.

The FLAC has actively participated in different initiatives during the year. These include contributing to the Joint COP27 side event entitled Utilising expertise of the youth to bridge the science-policy divide and improve access to finance, in collaboration with

the World Federation of Engineering Organisations Young Engineers/ Future Leaders Working Group on Climate Action, FIDIC, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Commonwealth Futures Climate Research Cohort, Moravian University, the International Water Association and Central Asia Youth For Water.

The FLAC also organised and led a very successful FIDIC webinar, entitled The darker side of projects – dealing with uncomfortable issues in the construction industry, in which members of the council, as well as the participation of Dr Tristano Sainati and Rasha Hammad, discussed some of the most uncomfortable and challenging issues in the construction industry, covering topics such as modern slavery corruption and codes

Members of the IMC are keen to raise the profile of integrity and anti-corruption matters at every opportunity and have mapped out a programme of future activity for the committee, which includes ensuring that integrity has a profile at future global FIDIC conferences, having a FIDIC presence at future meetings of the UN Convention against Corruption, increasing the committee’s profile in global organisations in anti-corruption sector and active measures to increase the membership of the committee itself.

of conduct, which the future leaders envision as some of the most important challenges impacting the industry.

Lastly, in other activities, the FLAC issued a call for papers for the seventh edition of the Future Leaders Booklet, celebrating the 110th anniversary of FIDIC and inviting submissions on what future leaders envision for the next 100 years in the consulting engineering industry. Furthermore, the council was also involved in reviewing applications for the FIDIC Future Leaders Awards and took part in judging panel meetings. FLAC member Michael Walker has also been actively participating as a trainer in the FIDIC Future Leaders Management Certificate (FLMC). The next year promises to be busy and filled with new activities for future leaders, so stay tuned!

Digital Transformation Committee

Update from the vice chairs, Stacy Sinclair, partner and head of technology and innovation at Fenwick Elliott (UK).

With the advent and integration of generative AI and other emerging disruptive technologies, the significance of digital transformation in today’s construction and engineering industry is skyrocketing.

The Digital Transformation Committee (DTC), established in 2022 with the purpose of advocating and guiding FIDIC and the consulting engineering community on the use of new and existing technologies, marked its first year with two successful webinars and a number of productive meetings to progress activities aligned with its strategic priorities.

In November 2022, the DTC’s first webinar, Going Digital - Latest Industry Trends and Developments, gathered experts and enthusiasts to delve into the meaning of digital transformation and where to start, what the industry and companies need to be aware of and the latest trends and technologies.

In April 2023, the second webinar, BIM and Digital Technologies – optimise traditional ways of working or make a paradigm shift?, sparked a discourse on how BIM and other technologies are revolutionising the engineering and infrastructure industries. The panellists considered the differing levels of BIM maturity and adoption around the world and how to overcome real or perceived challenges to adoption and implementation, from a commercial, contractual and practical perspective. In the coming year, the DTC is looking forward to connecting and collaborating with member associations and other stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation,

Membership Committee

in order to collect, develop and disseminate shared expertise, know-how and guidance.

In addition, the DTC is convening a task group to develop FIDIC’s BIM Advisory Note (Advisory Notes to Users of FIDIC Contracts Where the Project Uses Building Information Modelling Systems) to address the ever-evolving landscape of BIM technologies and provide further guidance on incorporating BIM contractually.

Digital technologies, fuelled by data-driven insights, have the potential to enable and enhance new ways of working, designing and decision-making. The sector stands on the cusp of a paradigm shift that promises to revolutionise how we design and construct our built and social environments. Next year, the work of the DTC aims to guide and support FIDIC, its members and the wider engineering community in navigating this dynamic digital journey.

Update from the chair, Enni Soetanto, Executive Director/senior advisor of Mott MacDonald Indonesia.

be assessed by one or two members of the committee and shared with other members to arrive at the best possible way forward.

associations can have better connections with member firms in their countries by engaging them in arranging webinars relevant to their requirements.

FIDIC’s Membership Committee has set up a task group to implement the terms of reference of its 2023-2025 term and to establish contact with member associations (MAs) on a virtual or in-person basis to discuss and identify the aspirations of MAs with regard to their expectations of FIDIC and to better understand those expectations and to provide a better service to those MAs. Meetings are being organised by the FIDIC secretariat and member associations’ feedback will

By using the results of the task group, the membership committee will support the FIDIC secretariat to establish a strategy on how to fulfil MAs’ aspirations and to determine the best approach to encourage members of local MAs and their member firms to be involved in FIDIC committees. The conclusions of this consultation will then be referred by the secretariat to the FIDIC CEO who will address any issues directly or after seeking advice from the board.

The membership committee is also supporting the FIDIC secretariat to establish a strategy on how member

The FIDIC secretariat facilitated and arranged meetings with the chair and vice chair of the membership committee and directors and secretaries’ advisory council to organise a webinar which included a selection of speakers from MAs, their member firms and future leaders who highlighted the benefits and importance of volunteering in their local MAs and on FIDIC committees. The webinar, entitled Making the most of FIDIC, was well attended with good participation and input from the audience.

Sustainable Development Committee

Update from the chair, Tracey Ryan, managing director of Aurecon – New Zealand

As we look back on the past year, the climate crisis has certainly made itself known around the world. We have seen extreme weather events including cyclones, flooding and devastating fires across the globe and these events have ravaged through our communities and have had destructive impacts on infrastructure. Just recently it was announced that July was the world’s hottest on record with abnormally high temperatures recorded on both land and sea.

With a greater sense of urgency across our industry, FIDIC’s Sustainable Development Committee has been looking at how we support the FIDIC community to play a role in solving some of the complex challenges we are now facing.

We continue to work across other FIDIC committees to help raise awareness and share tools, thought leadership and give access to information. Our Climate Change Charter continues to progress as it is embedded across our FIDIC member associations and we continue to collaborate with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to promote an ecologically sustainable, resilient and inclusive infrastructure development agenda.

The committee’s main piece of work this year has been in partnership with WWF to create a ‘playbook’ for nature-positive infrastructure development, which is in answer to the dual threat of climate change and global biodiversity loss. The purpose of the playbook is to draw on a number of examples of projects that relied on nature-based solutions, as well as examples of projects that incorporated green and green-grey infrastructure solutions, to provide a simple guide for infrastructure practitioners to identify and select potential solutions for their projects. We intend to launch the playbook at this year’s FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore, as well as promoting it at COP28 in Dubai.

I would like to thank the members of the sustainable development committee for their hard work and commitment during the past year, especially my two deputy chairs, Robert Spencer and Natalie Muir, who continue to work tirelessly behind the scenes. I’m looking forward to once again catching up face-to-face with the committee, together with the broader FIDIC community, in Singapore in September.

Directors and Secretaries Advisory Council

Update from the chair, Chris Campbell, CEO of Consulting Engineers South Africa.

FIDIC’s Directors’ and Secretaries’ Advisory Council (DNSAC) has grown over the past six years since its inception in 2017. Currently the composition of this council is such that we can celebrate the direction in which its representation is headed, factoring in diversity, expertise, and experience from MAs and from various geographical regions across the globe, consistent with the FIDIC strategy. The additional members of the council this year, following the DNS meeting in September 2022, have made a positive impact to the functioning and foresight in the DNSAC and there is no doubt that with the healthy succession of council members, we will grow from strength to strength.

Over the past year we have been able to ensure a healthy level of interaction within the advisory council, between the council and the board and importantly with member associations, the core constituency of FIDIC. Earlier this year, the council held a two-day workshop at the FIDIC Offices in Geneva to set the tone for its areas of focus over the next two years in alignment with the FIDIC strategy. In keeping with its inclusivity strategy, the DNSAC solicited input from member associations, by conducting a simple survey exercise, the results of which were used to guide the discussions at the workshop as well as for planning the upcoming DNS meeting scheduled to take place as part of the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference 2023.

A townhall session hosted during the year, focusing on FIDIC’s Member Association Excellence Awards to encourage more MAs to participate in this opportunity for recognition, was well attended, but more importantly, it is notable that this year there have been significantly more submissions than in previous years. The joint webinar

between the DNSAC and the membership committee in June this year, was well attended and responses from attendees were positive in respect of their increased understanding of the FIDIC ecosystem of members and volunteers.

The chair of the DNSAC has also been actively involved as a regular invitee to the FIDIC board meetings. These have been mostly held online, except for the two in-person board meetings, one in Geneva, Switzerland in September 2022 and the other in Livingstone, Zambia in May 2023. Allowance was made for such in-person attendance in Geneva, owing to the timing related to the Global Infrastructure Conference, whereas attendance to the one in Livingstone was attended online, as was the case for all other council chairs.

Unfortunately, yet again this year, the aspiration to commence production of an MA Best Practice Guidebook, has not been fulfilled owing to the more pressing focus on getting new members on council and ensuring that we have a succession plan in place. With the council being at almost full strength, with two positions out of a total of ten becoming available in September 2023, we should be able to make considerable progress in the next period.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the support from our designated board liaison representatives, Luis Villarroya and Manish Kothari, as well as the FIDIC secretariat. Last but not least, it is imperative to recognise the dedication and commitment of the members of the DNSAC, availing themselves to the activities of this council, at mostly odd times of the day or night, owing to the truly global spread of the team we have involved.

Monitoring and measuring FIDIC’s climate impact

It could be argued that 2023 was the year that climate change started to take hold. We have seen wildfires, floods, adverse weather and protests across the globe. Countries have responded in various ways, most by trying to speed up their roll-out of renewables and low carbon infrastructure, however it is clear that the current policies announced will not be enough.

The climate challenge is one that no section of society can ignore if we are to achieve a sustainable quality of life. Never before has it been so important that the entire infrastructure sector is engaged in the debate about how we address this issue and tackle its significance and scale going forward.

FIDIC’s Climate Change Charter outlines a series of actions to be taken by FIDIC’s key stakeholders including FIDIC member associations, project teams and schemes, companies, individual professional engineers and of course FIDIC itself. FIDIC is also encouraging stakeholders across the sector to become a signatory of the charter.

In 2022, FIDIC undertook its first climate emissions measurement (2019-2021). This was an important step in its journey as part of its commitments within its climate change charter. It did, however, become clear that this period was one of significant change in operational procedures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For this reason, FIDIC undertook additional efforts to not only measure its 2021 footprint, but also its 2020 and 2019 emissions. The rationale behind doing this was to ensure that FIDIC could eventually see how its operations and emissions compared pre- and post-Covid, as the way in which the organisation works has changed.

As can be seen from the figures below, FIDIC’s emissions fell significantly from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the Covid pandemic. Whilst operations mostly continued, the way FIDIC works, purchases goods and services and the travel it undertakes have changed significantly.

2020 2021 2022

This continued into 2021 as travel restrictions and fears about a resurgence of covid continue to affect working and operational patterns. This brings us to the latest year’s reported figure. As anticipated, some degree of travel and commuting has resumed and as operations within FIDIC have increased we have seen a rise in emissions from the previous year.

Given the exceptional nature of the previous two years, a bounce back towards normal was to be expected. As mentioned above, this was part of the rationale behind FIDIC’s first-ever reported emissions going back three years instead of just the previous one.

The encouraging news is that emissions, whilst higher, remain below their 2019 levels, thus reflecting that ways of working have not just returned to pre-pandemic and remote working. Reduced commuting and business travel and efforts to raise awareness and keep emissions below the ‘old normal’ appear to be working. The challenge going forward will be growing sustainably, reflecting on these new working patterns and looking at how FIDIC can continue to make progress in this crucial area.

Building global partnerships

FIDIC has always made it a key priority to maintain good relationships with key global stakeholders. The importance of the organisation’s lobbying and advocacy role cannot be overstated. It is a key reason why member associations are part of FIDIC, as they benefit from the advocacy and campaigning role that the organisation plays on issues for the greater good of the industry. There is no doubt that FIDIC’s ‘honest broker’ role is also much valued by stakeholders, including many of the major international funding organisations, who have enjoyed close relationships with the federation for many years.

Stepping up the work

In recent years, FIDIC has stepped up its work in this area, building important global partnerships, alliances and signing strategic agreements with an ever-growing number of organisations whose work directly impacts the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector. As our review of the year in this annual report shows, the past 12 months have seen several new agreements signed and existing relationships renewed and enhanced.

Partnership working is of course a crucial part of the industry in which FIDIC operates and it is to the organisation’s credit that an increasing number of governments, client bodies, key funders and other important players in the global

infrastructure sector are looking to engage with FIDIC and seek out its opinion on the key business and industry issues of the day.

The partnerships that have been built have helped FIDIC to develop into a very powerful lobbying voice for consulting engineers. The organisation now enjoys regular dialogue and engagement with many UN agencies and all the major international financial institutions and multilateral development banks regarding their procedures, contract documentation and project procurement. FIDIC representatives from its committees and working groups participate regularly in pan-industry meetings and workshops and the networking strength of FIDIC’s member associations amplifies that effort around the world.

FIDIC’s recent work with the multilateral development banks (MDBs) has been particularly successful, with effectively all the major MDBs now having signed agreements to use the key FIDIC standard construction contracts for projects they finance, with the documents being used as part of the banks’ standard bidding documents. Many of these agreements have also been renewed and expanded to take account of new and revised contracts that FIDIC has issued.

The various MoUs and partnerships signed with many organisations will help to

increase the profile and influence of FIDIC and its members. These partnerships extend beyond the financial institutions to also include strategic agreements to address environmental issues, like the recent collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to accelerate the transition to sustainable infrastructure and the ongoing partnership work with the WWF to create a ‘playbook’ for nature-positive infrastructure development.

Key role of FIDIC conference

FIDIC’s annual Global Infrastructure Conference also plays a key role in strengthening the organisation’s partnership work. Regularly attended by many leading stakeholders from the international industry, including key funders and investors, politicians and key opinion formers and influencers, FIDIC has invested more time and effort in its annual conferences in recent years. They are now more representative of the key business issues and developments being discussed, not only by FIDIC’s members, but also by those who influence the sector and have the power to impact on it by their actions.

Building and maintaining global strategic partnerships will continue to be a key part of FIDIC’s work in the months and years ahead.

Update on the FIDIC Strategic Plan 2020-2024

In 2020, FIDIC launched its new and improved Strategic Plan following consultation with stakeholders. Whilst this is not the end of the journey for the current plan, it is important to continue to take stock and consider if the plan is fit for purpose.

Structure of the plan

The latest Strategic Plan for the first time placed a greater emphasis on FIDIC’s priorities, with goals and outcomes and their effects on industry, member associations and wider industry all considered.

To do this, FIDIC, following consultation, developed ten headline areas as follows:

1. Service delivery

2. Secretariat and regionalisation

3. Integrity

4. Contracts

5. Credentialing

6.

7. Sustainability

8. Technology

9. Quality

10.

CEO Club and advocacy

Within each of these headline areas, FIDIC has defined five key goals, which are then considered against the following benchmarks:

• The main actors they affect (FIDIC, the industry and member associations)

• FIDIC’s main priorities (if goals do not meet our overarching priorities such activity should be reassessed)

• Current performance (provides a view on FIDIC’s current activity)

• Timeline and targets (outlines timelines and ambitions over the Strategic Plan)

As well as the main plan being published, FIDIC also produced several appendices which outline FIDIC’s performance against its last Strategic Plan, financial projections over the plan period and a detailed explanation of how the goals are affected across the various stakeholders, members and FIDIC itself.

Reflections and moving forward

Having recapped the structure of the plan, it is now important to consider the past two years and the developments that have taken place. At the board meeting in Livingstone earlier this year, the FIDIC board dedicated a day to discuss the plan and FIDIC’s strategic direction. The meeting considered several vital areas, including a progress review and taking stock of FIDIC’s performance against its plan, a strategic discussion on industry opportunities and challenges and a look at the ideas and developments for FIDIC’s future.

Are we on track?

It was felt that the Strategic Plan was on track and that many of the items reported in the plan were developing along the envisaged timescales. Unlike previous years, there was greater emphasis in the discussion on what are the challenges and opportunities that are starting to appear on the horizon and how these might affect FIDIC’s current operating model as the organisation enters the last year of the current plan in 2024.

FCCE and China

What have we achieved and/or improved?

As part of this Strategic Plan, FIDIC has undergone quite a transformation, with the final year of the plan fast approaching. During the term of the plan, the secretariat has reformed and grown, governance and procedures enhanced, advocacy developed, committees reformed, diversity improved, the launch of FCS, FCL and FIDIC Academy and improvements in both FIDIC’s engagement with its MAs and the wider sector.

When considering the 50 goals that were set as part of the strategic plan back in 2020, it can be seen that, with the exception of one where performance had stayed stable, all other 49 measures had shown improvement or had been delivered in line with the plan.

Within the discussions and considerations of the strategic plan, member context was also provided following a survey of FIDIC’s MAs, which explored the challenges both they and their member firms are facing. As the current plan demonstrates, ensuring that the linkages between FIDIC, its member associations, their members and ultimately the wider infrastructure sector, is critical if it is remain relevant and influential

Is the plan still relevant?

Overall, the plan was considered to still be relevant and an important document in ensuring that FIDIC not only undertakes the activity it said it would, but also that it also does not stray into new initiatives which could impact on its core performance or purpose. The plan has been robust and flexible enough to withstand a global pandemic, economic pressures such as raising interest rates and

inflationary pressure and the aim is to continue to deliver on the vision that was developed in 2020.

Looking ahead

As we enter 2024 and the last year of the current plan, there are challenges on the horizon that were less of a consideration in 2020. For example, artificial intelligence could significantly change the way that MAs and the sector works, the industry is no longer operating in a low-interest rate environment, the SDGs will need to be delivered in only six years and net zero will be a far more important driver of project development.

It is important that FIDIC continues to understand these challenges and develops with the same conviction and determination that has helped deliver the current plan. This means that the development of the procedures and actions that will need to take place to develop the next plan and consider future challenges needs to begin in early 2024.

This is now something that is being considered as, with the current plan, the intention is to ensure that feedback and input is provided from the widest possible set of stakeholders in a transparent and consultative approach. Like the current plan, it is important that the new Strategic Plan remains outcome-focused, outlining a vision that will continue to grow and develop FIDIC so that it is fit for purpose up to the achievement of the SDGs and beyond.

Representing the industry with distinction for more than a century

July 1913, Ghent, Belgium

The year 2023 marks the 110th anniversary of FIDIC. It’s a significant milestone and one that the organisation is celebrating throughout the year. Founded in 1913, FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, has represented the profession and business of consulting engineering with distinction for more than a century.

As well as producing a celebratory publication to mark the anniversary, FIDIC has also commissioned a special 110th year logo and will be highlighting the milestone with various initiatives during its Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore in September. The commemorative 110th anniversary publication charts the history of an organisation that has left its mark on the engineering, construction and infrastructure industry through the work of its member associations and member firms.

As befits a forward-thinking organisation, in celebrating its 110th anniversary FIDIC is keen to look ahead as well as

back in order to highlight how FIDIC continues to underpin global construction and infrastructure projects and lead the change needed to achieve the sustainable infrastructure of the future. That said, the special 110th publication does document FIDIC’s development from its early beginnings in July 1913 in Ghent, Belgium, by three national associations of independent consulting engineers from Belgium, France and Switzerland, to its position today as a leading business organisation for national associations of consulting engineers representing over one million engineering professionals and 40,000 firms in around 100 countries worldwide.

Key role of FIDIC volunteers

The secret of FIDIC’s success over the years has been due to a large extent to the willingness of its representatives to volunteer and devote time, money and effort to serve the federation and the interests of consulting engineering. This continues today and without that spirit of self-sacrifice and

dedication to the profession then it is unlikely that FIDIC would even exist, let alone flourish in the way it has over the 110 years of its existence. Thanks are due to those early pioneers and also to all of the stakeholders who continue to help FIDIC thrive today.

FIDIC has driven the profession of consulting engineering forward to keep pace with world events, their effect on the industry it represents and to further the influence of engineering on society and increasingly on the planet itself. Issues like climate change, skills and capacity and digital technology are now influencing all aspects of business life and FIDIC in turn has had to adapt to deal with these challenges.

A constant and clear vision

While the challenges that FIDIC and its member associations face today are ever-changing and different from those of its founding members more than a century ago, its vision remains constant – to improve people’s quality of life through the promotion of quality, integrity and sustainability in the projects and services consulting engineers deliver of a global scale. Today, FIDIC can

proudly claim to be the global representative body for national associations of consulting engineers in the infrastructure sector. That sector in which FIDIC members’ work contributes at least US$36 trillion to global GDP. It’s a major industry on a world scale and FIDIC takes its responsibilities to the industry seriously.

FIDIC’s founders back in 1913 would have had no idea that the organisation would endure for more than a century, though as a far-sighted and perceptive group of industry professionals, they would have hoped that the organisation they gave birth to would represent the profession of consulting engineering with distinction on the world stage! In fact, FIDIC has done much more than that. It has made an indelible and positive mark on an industry sector that has done so much to benefit the lives of citizens in every continent around the world.

Remembering former FIDIC president Jorge Díaz Padilla: 1946-2022

In November 2022, FIDIC announced that former president Dr Jorge Díaz Padilla had died at the age of 76. Jorge was much respected and loved and made a significant impact during his time as FIDIC president and it is right that he is remembered in this annual report.

Born in Mexico City in 1946, civil engineer Jorge was president of FIDIC from 2005-2007 and was the first and to date only president from Latin America since the organisation’s foundation in 1913. In 1974 he started his consulting company, Systec, which was involved in many leading engineering projects, including auditing the quality of housing financed by the National Housing Agency of Mexico and restoring the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. As president and CEO of Systec, Jorge became involved with Mexico’s association of consulting firms, Cámara Nacional de Empresas de Consultoría (CNEC) and also FIDIC where he was elected to a two-year presidential term in 2005.

At FIDIC’s Mexico annual conference in 2019, Jorge received the prestigious Louis Prangey Award, the highest recognition for dedicated service to FIDIC. He represented FIDIC at many different levels, including the board, was also a former chair of the FIDIC integrity management committee and a member of the FIDIC Global Leadership Forum at the time of his death.

Jorge was well known globally throughout FIDIC and worked in the consulting engineering and construction industries and passionately promoted FIDIC principles and activities for more than 40 years. He played a key role in making FIDIC better known in Mexico and Latin America, was the ambassador of FIMS (FIDIC Integrity Management Systems) and a recognised promoter of FIDIC principles in Latin America and around the world.

Jorge also actively participated in the FIDIC past presidents council and was also a valued member of the FIDIC Project

Awards jury since 2013. Widely recognised as an expert in project troubleshooting and an authority in project information systems, Jorge also participated as an expert witness during arbitrations, was a specialist in construction contracts and a FIDIC certified trainer in contracts and alternative dispute resolution.

Commenting on his death on behalf of the FIDIC president and board, FIDIC CEO Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE said: “The death of Jorge Díaz Padilla is a sad loss to his family and the consulting engineering industry in Mexico and globally. I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and to his colleagues in Mexico and around the world who knew and worked with him. The entire FIDIC ecosystem and the wider industry we represent has lost a passionate and enthusiastic advocate and we are all poorer as we mourn his sad loss today. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

Jorge Díaz Padilla 14.9.46 – 28.11.22

Board agrees to set up new FIDIC Foundation

At is meeting in March 2023, the FIDIC board agreed a proposal to establish a new FIDIC Foundation with the primary objective to help attract those from diverse backgrounds and socio-economic groups to pursue a career in engineering by providing financial support, thus supporting the need to create a new pipeline of talent for the industry.

The objective of the foundation is to raise funds and disburse the money raised to support organisations, member associations, individuals and professionals to achieve FIDIC’s public good objects. These are objects 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 as listed in the FIDIC statutes. These are objects 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 as listed in the FIDIC statutes. FIDIC sees its 110th anniversary celebrations as the ideal time to launch such an initiative that will enable the organisation and the wider industry to ‘put something back’ and make a difference to those in need of support as they embark on a career in the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector.

The new foundation, a charitable organisation operating in accordance with Swiss law for the purposes of taxation and the disbursement of funds, would be governed and managed by independently appointed board members, led by a chair/ president, executive director and up to five non-executive directors, carefully selected across FIDIC’s operating regions.

It is envisaged that the FIDIC Foundation would be funded in three stages and be made up of annual contributions from consulting engineering, construction and infrastructure organisations, contributions from international financial

institutions, philanthropic organisations and corporate bodies, individual estate /legacy donations and also specific contributions to support particular programmes or projects.

The board has agreed to a recommendation that the initial 10% of the seed funding for the foundation should be donated by FIDIC with the rest being raised through FIDIC global ecosystem member associations and consultancy engineering firms as part of the 110 years anniversary. This would then be followed by crowdfunding from global infrastructure players plus legacy donations for the second income stream.

The third stream would be generated from recurring funding via a partnering strategy approach where global consulting engineering firms and key infrastructure players would be encouraged to commit to annual contributions as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy.

While the Foundation will disburse funds tied to specific projects or programmes as may be appropriate, it is intended to build the capital in the Foundation to enable it to provide a sustainable level of grants over time.

The aim is to establish and launch the FIDIC Foundation in 2023 during the Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore as part of the FIDIC 110 years anniversary. FIDIC’s CEO will work with the new president to oversee the overall delivery of the foundation programme with the fully constituted FIDIC Foundation expected to be officially formed in 2024.

Another year of active engagement

Once again, the past year has seen FIDIC actively engaged on many fronts with the scale and scope of the organisation’s work wider than ever before. The range of activities in which FIDIC is involved serves to highlight its growing influence with stakeholders across the global engineering, construction and infrastructure industry.

SEPT

September 2022 got off to a flying start with the successful return of FIDIC’s Global Infrastructure Conference as an in-person event in Geneva. All places were sold out before the conference even started and the event also saw the unveiling of FIDIC’s annual awards, with prizes handed out for outstanding projects, member association excellence and future leaders.

The month ended with the latest event in FIDIC’s webinar series which focused on the updated FIDIC short form of contract, the FIDIC Green Book 2021, which meets industry demands for a contract for projects where the perceived level of risk is low or where construction parties need a contract form that is simple and easy to use.

Also in October, European federation EFCA and FIDIC teamed up to organise a webinar on Boosting project preparation of quality infrastructure with the multilateral development banks. The event promoted the value of dialogue with the multilateral development banks about how to best deliver quality infrastructure and attract private investment.

FIDIC’s digital transformation committee took a deep dive into the ever-topical issue of digital and technology with a Going digital webinar at the start of November which looked at the latest industry trends and developments. The webinar was swiftly followed by a special event organised by FIDIC’s membership committee and directors and secretaries’ advisory council which looked at how FIDIC members - and also their member firms - can benefit from FIDIC’s best practice training services.

OCT

October began with another FIDIC webinar, reviewing the progress made since the launch of the FIDIC Climate Change Charter and examining how the industry is collectively addressing the issues of sustainability, net zero and how these efforts are contributing to the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goals. The shortlist for the 2022 FIDIC Contract Users’ Awards was also announced in October, the fourth year the awards have been run.

November also saw the global construction contracts community gather in London for the Official FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference. Returning as an in-person event for the first time in two years, the conference saw more than 200 legal and contractual experts hearing about essential updates on FIDIC’s contract suite as well as discussing the latest developments in the contracts arena, highlighting key and emerging issues.

The event also launched newly published reprints of a number of FIDIC’s key construction contracts as well as a new guide to their use. A very busy International Contract Users’ Conference also unveiled the winners of the fourth annual FIDIC Contract Users’ Awards, with prizes handed out for Project of the Year, Client of the Year, Trainer of the Year and Legal Firm of the Year.

Also in November, FIDIC announced the formation of a new nine-strong governing senate, led by WSP Global chairman Chris Cole, for its FIDIC Academy, which provides training and capacity building to drive excellence in quality and best practice for the global consulting engineering and infrastructure industry.

The month ended with the very sad news that former FIDIC president Dr Jorge Díaz Padilla had died at the age of 76. Born in Mexico City in 1946, Jorge was president of FIDIC from 2005-2007 and was the first and to date only president from Latin America. (see appreciation on page 28 of this annual report)

FIDIC ended the year by unveiling a packed 2023 events programme including a comprehensive series of webinars, regional and international contract users’ events and the flagship FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference to be held in Singapore.

December began with launch of FIDIC’s latest State of the World report, Corruption, its effects and the need to take action: Has the world learnt anything in the last decade? The seventh in the series of landmark FIDIC publications on the key infrastructure issues facing the world was launched to coincide with the UN’s International Anti-Corruption Day.

The final event in FIDIC’s 2022 webinar series also took place in December and looked at some of the key lessons learned in mitigating the impact of working in disaster and conflict zones. The webinar, Safety, sanctions and solutions - Mitigating the impact of working in disaster and conflict zones, was organised by FIDIC’s international financial institutions committee.

In December, FIDIC announced that it had presented a Strategic Partner Recognition Award to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to recognise the organisation’s support in translating the FIDIC Green Book 2021 and FIDIC White Book 2017 contracts into French and for CERN being a longstanding advocate of using FIDIC contracts for more than a decade.

The new year opened with the news that international net zero advisory organisation Positive Planet and FIDIC had signed a two-year memorandum of understanding to support FIDIC’s ambitions contained in its industry-leading Climate Change Charter and to increase knowledge and engagement in carbon emissions reduction across the industry.

The end of January saw leading providers of financial indices and analytics for infrastructure investors EDHECinfra and FIDIC team up with a two-year strategic partnership agreement to work together to promote approaches to sustainable infrastructure planning, design, development and delivery.

February began with the awful news of earthquakes in Turkey and northern Syria, events which would eventually claim around 60,000 lives. FIDIC issued a statement on the disaster and commended the international engineering, construction, and infrastructure community, including humanitarian relief organisations Red Crescent, RedR International and others, for their work in offering assistance.

The month of February also saw the industry-leading online management learning programme for rising engineers and other consulting professionals run by FIDIC, the Future Leaders Management Course (FLMC), gain official

accreditation by the CPD Certification Service. Also in February, the FIDIC Academy announced major upgrade, appointment of global professional experts and launch of new website.

FIDIC’s president-elect Catherine Karakatsanis received a Canadian engineering lifetime achievement award in February. She received the award from the Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine, which was recognising leading professional engineers working in private practice for their exceptional careers in - and legacies of contributions toconsulting engineering in the fields of construction and infrastructure.

February closed with a webinar organised by FIDIC’s Future Leaders Advisory Council looking at some of the more difficult and challenging issues facing the construction sector that are not normally discussed. The event, The darker side of projects - dealing with uncomfortable issues in the construction industry, saw an international line-up of speakers discuss a range of issues from modern slavery and corruption to the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources.

Also in March, FIDIC welcomed World Bank’s announcement that it would be using ‘rated criteria’ to promote greater value in procurement. FIDIC said that the move away from a ‘lowest price’ approach to procurement would be widely welcomed by the engineering and construction industry and it is something that has long been advocated by FIDIC.

In what was a busy month, FIDIC published a new guidance document to assist the users of its construction contracts when dealing with troubled times, including the effects of inflation and shortages of labour and goods following the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

APR

April began with FIDIC announcing that it had signed a collaboration agreement with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to work together to accelerate the transition to sustainable infrastructure.

MAR

March opened with an International Women’s Day plea from FIDIC’s president-elect Catherine Karakatsanis for more women to join the engineering industry. Speaking to international infrastructure industry online news platform, Infrastructure Global, Karakatsanis, said that it was vital that the role of women in the industry was highlighted, not just on International Women’s Day, but on an ongoing basis.

April also saw a webinar organised by FIDIC’s digital transformation committee which offered attendees an update on the latest industry digital developments, including the use of BIM and how to incorporate emerging technologies in terms of contract. Later in the month, FIDIC announced that it would be leading by example on climate change issues by taking the initiative to measure, monitor and report on its own carbon emissions.

The month ended with the first-ever Global Leadership Forum Summit organised by FIDIC in Geneva. The summit, involving leaders from across the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector, closed with a firm commitment that the infrastructure sector must take a lead on decarbonisation and advocating more greener investment in projects that make a positive difference to people’s lives and the planet.

May began with FIDIC publishing a hard copy version of its new contracts guide to complement the currently available electronic version which was released to support the reprints of a number of key FIDIC construction contracts published at the end of 2022.

July began with FIDIC announcing the appointment of Eric Chiang as its new chief operating officer to help strengthen its commercial and operational capabilities. Also in July, FIDIC unveiled the expert lineup of construction and infrastructure specialists and experts who would be taking the stage at its highly-anticipated Global Infrastructure Conference 2023 in Singapore from 10-12 September.

Continuing the contracts theme, May also saw the 2023 Official FIDIC Contract Users’ Conference for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region take place online. The event, targeting the contract users’ community in the EMEA region, offered a unique opportunity to share progress on the application and use of FIDIC contracts internationally and across the region.

A busy month for contracts concluded with the announcement of a new on-demand course delivered by the FIDIC Academy, Fundamentals of International Construction Contracts, to provide a comprehensive overview of the basic principles and key features of international construction contracts.

The same month, it was announced that work had started on developing a new FIDIC contract for offshore wind farm projects to meet a growing need in the market as decarbonisation gathers pace. There was more good news in July as FIDIC announced that it had renewed a major agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that will see the international funding organisation continue to use FIDIC’s major standard construction contracts and adopt FIDIC’s new publications for the next five years.

July also saw the announcement of the winning entries for the annual FIDIC Awards, with entries in awards for Project of the Year, Member Association Excellence and Future Leaders all in the running for major recognition.

June began with FIDIC welcoming the first-ever female president of the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA), Inés Ferguson, at the EFCA general assembly meeting held in Rome. The month also saw the publication of the tenth edition of the FIDIC Contract Users’ Newsletter and also a successful webinar organised jointly by FIDIC’s membership committee and its directors and secretaries advisory council on how to make the most of FIDIC and its member asssociations.

Also in June, FIDIC’s latest State of the World report, Digital Technology on a Path to Net Zero, highlighted how digital technology is being used in the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector and how it is being applied to agendas such as carbon reduction and net zero. The month closed with the good news that the popular and industry-leading FIDIC Contracts Introductory Course had been officially accredited by the CPD Certification Service.

August was another busy month with the FIDIC team working hard on finalising preparations for the Global Infrastructure Conference to be held in Singapore in September.

Once again, it’s been another very busy 12 months for FIDIC, as the organisation continued to deliver on behalf of its members and industry stakeholders.

Update on publications

This year, FIDIC’s publications team is delighted to report a number of new initiatives, including the launch of the entire suite of FIDIC Rainbow Suite reprint 2022 and the new FIDIC Guide to compliment the Rainbow Suite as well as a number of strategic licences signed and key translations completed in order to ensure that FIDIC remains the global voice of consulting engineers.

Licences

The beginning of 2023 turned a new page for FIDIC as strategic partnerships were signed with a number of governmental agencies for usage of FIDIC standard contracts. The ongoing successful relationship with the multilateral development banks was enhanced by signing a new licence agreement in June 2023 with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for five years. This particular IFI extended the usage of previously listed FIDIC contracts as well as included the new titles such as FIDIC Green Book 2021 and FIDIC Emerald Book 2019.

The other IFIs have welcomed the reprints of the Rainbow Suite 2022 launched in November 2022 and signed addenda to incorporate the relevant amendments. The continuing partnerships with Millennium Challenge Corporation, KfW as well as UN agency ILO, were reinforced via new licensing arrangements or extensions. New discussions commenced this year with the UN agency, the World Food Programme and Pakistan Engineering Council. Finally, an ongoing licensing arrangement since 2015 with

UK nuclear power plant project Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C was extended for the use of FIDIC contracts going forward.

Pipeline progress

The FIDIC contracts committee and overall contract user community have been as busy this year as ever. The anticipated launch of FIDIC Red, Yellow and Silver books reprints along with the new FIDIC Guide to compliment this collection took place in November 2022, coinciding with the FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference 2022 that took place in London. In March 2023, the FIDIC contracts committee published a new memorandum providing FIDIC contracts guidance on the effects of inflation and unavailability of goods and labour following the global Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, to assist the users of its construction contracts when dealing with the effects of inflation and shortages of labour and goods following the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

This year also marked the launch of two new task groups - TG23 - net zero clauses and TG14 - offshore windfarm contract development. The already established task groups TG9 Sub-contracts, TG18 PPP, TG17 Collaborative contracting, TG22 EPCM, TG19 FIDIC Handbook for practitioners and TG15B Golden Principles for Agreements, TG4 FIDIC Suite of Agreements 2017 Guide, TG21 Procurement Guide and TG 20 JV for Contractors have

started their work in 2023 and are keen to present the first drafts for review by the FIDIC contracts committee. The Guide to the Emerald Book, along with amendments to the 2019 Emerald Book, as well as the test edition of the Bronze Book (ODBO type of contract) are also under production to complement the current collection of FIDIC publications.

Translations

Given the wide geographical spread of the market it services, FIDIC recognises the need to accommodate different language requirements, so it tries as much as possible to make its contracts available in different languages. The successful collaboration with the World Bank was extended and translations of the reprints of Rainbow Suite 2022 are being completed for the French, Spanish and Portuguese languages. FIDIC’s Jordanian member association is working to complete the translation of the reprints in Arabic language and our partners in China, CMP, are currently updating the reprints of Rainbow Suite 2022 into Chinese Mandarin language.

Last but not least, our member associations have also been busy with translations and a number of addenda were issued to FIDIC MAs to update the FIDIC Rainbow Suite 2017 to 2022 reprints. A number of new translations licence agreements with different MAs have also been secured, which will materialise as translations available throughout 2024.

Overall, FIDIC is trying to improve the delivery of its electronic products to enhance the user experience and meet the demand of the industry. Also, the FIDIC digital rights management review group has completed the trial of the new FIDIC electronic format, called FIDIC educational version. This new format is now available for key FIDIC publications and addresses the need of users willing to view the document for reference and educational purposes at a competitive price for single or multiple users.

Building and engaging the FIDIC contracts community

With work underway on new contract documents, launches of new guides and editions, industry-leading essential conferences and awards and cutting-edge training, more and more FIDIC is taking the centre stage when it comes to international construction contracts.

Following the launch of a series of reprints of its key contract documents and a new contracts guide at the end of 2022, it can be seen that FIDIC has certainly not been resting on its laurels in the global construction contracts arena. In fact, the organisation is busier than ever in this area as it looks to keep the industry updated and informed.

In 2023, the tenth issue of the FIDIC Contract Users’ Newsletter was published, highlighting some of the work currently underway and detailing a number of must-attend events that have been keeping the FIDIC contracts community together to discuss the latest issues facing industry professionals.

As highlighted elsewhere in this report, FIDIC’s contracts committee continues to be very active and its task groups are working on a number of new initiatives, including a FIDIC collaborative contract, forms of sub-contract, new net zero clauses, a joint venture contract for contractors, a PPP contract and a new contract for offshore wind farms to take advantage of the growing market for renewable energy.

A successful webinar held in March 2023 showed how FIDIC contracts can help navigate the effects of rising inflation, goods shortages, supply chain delays and war to support new guidance recently issued to users. The much-needed guidance has already proved to be of great assistance in addressing a series of challenging issues that have all had a serious negative impact on the construction industry.

FIDIC has also been working closely with a number of international finance institutions to make its recent 2022 contract reprints more readily available and the World Bank,

International Fund for Agricultural Development, Islamic Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank have all signed up to use the new reprints. In addition, the World Bank is assisting FIDIC with the translation of the contract reprints into French, Spanish and Portuguese (see page 34-35).

When you add to all that a series of must-attend contracts conferences, expert training provision and leading industry awards, it’s clear that FIDIC is increasing the place to be for all those active in the global construction contracts space. That’s why over the past 12 months FIDIC has stepped up its efforts to engage more effectively and closely with its contract users at every level.

As well as the regular guidance on key issues and explanatory webinars, the past year has also seen FIDIC organise two regional contract users’ conferences to give users the opportunity to hear about the latest developments from experts in the contracts and legal arena. The International Contract Users’ Conference, which returned to London at the end of 2022 as an in-person event, was a great success with more than 200 legal and contractual experts hearing about essential updates on FIDIC’s contract suite as well as discussing the latest developments in the contracts arena, highlighting key and emerging issues. The London event was an essential part of FIDIC’s outreach work with its contracts community and attendees were able to give feedback on the use of FIDIC contracts on the ground and across different regions. Click here to access reports on all the sessions from the event.

As well as the international users’ event, the past year also saw the Official FIDIC Contract Users’ Conference 2023 for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) taking place online. The two-day event in May, delivered in-house by FIDIC and specifically targeting the contract users’ community in the EMEA region, offered a unique opportunity to share progress on the application and use of FIDIC contracts internationally and across the region. The conference was 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.

In order to improve its future contract users’ conferences, FIDIC will be examining the feedback received from both the international and regional events held over the past 12 months to make further enhancements for the events which will take place over the coming year.

FIDIC is also grateful for the support of its contract users’ conference sponsors for their input over the past 12 months. Thank you to the sponsors of the Official FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference 2022, strategic partner CMS, platinum sponsor White & Case, gold sponsors Corbett & Co and Pinsent Masons, silver sponsors Fenwick Elliott and Riskwell and bronze sponsor ECV. And thanks also to the sponsors of the regional EMEA event, leading construction and energy law firm Fenwick Elliott.

FIDIC Academy update

FIDIC Academy was launched just over a year ago as the official training arm of FIDIC. In 2023, FIDIC Academy remains highly active in its education and training offers for both public online courses and private with 60 courses offered to date, reaching 1,830 participants as of the end of July.

Public online instructor-led training (ILTs) organised directly via FIDIC Academy, those organised via FIDIC member associations using hybrid delivery methods of online ILT (instructor-led training) and in person education and training constituted 31 courses in total.

In terms of private courses, the growing demand continues for these, with private firms and public institutions, governments or international financial institutions requesting FIDIC education and training. These include Westinghouse USA, European Investment Bank, GE Germany, IKEA India, Pertamina Indonesia, Inter American Dev. Bank, Guyana Government, Caribbean Dev. Bank, Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation Philippines, MCC Nepal, VARO Energy The Netherlands, First Balfour Philippines, The Gambia Government, among others.

Future Leaders Management Course (FLMC)

The Future Leaders Management Course (FLMC) for 2023 started in April with 45 participants on the FIDIC Academy platform. In September, a two-day FLMC workshop will be organised in Singapore before the annual conference and a presentation during the Future Leaders Symposium at the conference will be made by the FLMC participants. A total of 36 of the 2023 cohort will be present in Singapore.

Kings College and FIDIC Academy Summer School 2023

For the third time, in June-July 2023, FIDIC provided in conjunction with King’s College, London Centre of Construction Law, an intensive one-week summer school covering the FIDIC standard form of contracts in practice. The places were quickly fully booked since the training was limited to 28 participants.

Course development

In terms of new course development, FIDIC Academy has launched five new courses in a ‘Fundamentals of’ on-demand series, one in the contracts field and the rest covering best business practice and FIDIC values topics respectively. Another five on-demand courses are in various stages of development and will roll out between the end of August and the start of 2024. All on-demand course videos produced in the ‘Fundamentals of’ series are subtitled in the UN languages as well as Portuguese via VTT files. This enables FIDIC Academy to reach more markets where the first language is not English. Other new courses in contracts, business and FIDIC values are planned for 2024.

FIDIC Academy course accreditation

FIDIC Academy’s Future Leaders Management Course (FLMC) was accredited by the CPD accreditation service in Q1 of 2023, meaning that participants in the course can officially log their continued professional development hours, with the quality recognition from a third-party provider of the education and training they are receiving in the course. FIDIC Academy has also gained accreditation for the FIDIC Contracts Introductory

Course (former module 1), which is FIDIC Academy’s best-selling course year-on-year. Accreditation brings participants added value as a quality recognition of FIDIC public online courses.

New FIDIC Academy website

https://fidic.academy/

FIDIC Academy launched its new standalone website in Q1 of 2023 that now serves as the ‘one-stop-shop’ to advertise and sell its education and training offers and to bring more clarity, market visibility and understanding among FIDIC stakeholders in this regard. A second phase of development of the website is under way to further upgrade both technical and marketing/ sales functionalities, such as learning paths, bundle packages and a dedicated resources page.

FIDIC Academy governance

Regulation and oversight of FIDIC Academy’s course content, learning and development activities and operations is undertaken by the FIDIC Academy senate, which reports to the FIDIC board.

The subjects covered within FIDIC Academy include, among others, contracts, FIDIC’s core values (sustainability, integrity, and quality) and other best business practice subjects in line with FIDIC’s objectives and the FIDIC Body of Knowledge. Each subject area is defined as a discipline contained within one of the three FIDIC Academy faculties - Contracts, FIDIC Values and Business Practice. Faculty members are sourced from consulting engineering firms within FIDIC member associations, universities, other learning bodies and private companies experienced in the faculty discipline. The senate and respective faculties meet once per quarter. An overview of the governance structure can be found at https://fidic. academy/governance/

FIDIC Credentialing on the up

Over the past year, FIDIC Credentialing Ltd (FCL) experienced an encouraging period of growth and internal improvement, while at the same time intensifying its business development activities to further promote its five fully operational FIDIC certification programmes in the global arena.

Governance

In terms of governance, more than 35 online meetings were organised and implemented in 2022 for the two FCL boards and 15 programme, writing and examination committees. The working committees are responsible for the development, maintenance, and implementation of FCL’s five certification programmes. For 2023, a similarly busy meeting schedule was developed and continues to be implemented according to the original plan, with the highlight of having held the second in-person meetings of the management and certification boards which took place in July 2023 in Geneva.

Since the beginning of 2023, the FCL management team has supported the implementation of FCL governance restructuring, by streamlining each of the committees’ responsibilities to ensure a more effective operation and cooperation of the committees and to avoid of any overlaps. At the same time, new members were identified and onboarded in the various working committees who will be able to contribute further to the development and implementation of the FCL certification programmes.

Exam delivery

The exam delivery for the programmes has so far been quite impressive. In 2022, 13 exam sessions were organised for all five programmes and in 2023, it is anticipated that the exams sessions will increase by 50%. This means there will be a total of 19 exam sessions. The thirst for FIDIC credentials can also be supported by the fact that, so far, candidates from 87 different countries have participated in our online exams whether from their home or office. In addition to this, candidates from an additional 32 countries have started their applications but as yet, have not participated in our exams. What is equally important

is that FCL reached its first milestone of more than 1,000 certifications issued and this number is continuously growing.

FIDIC Certified Consulting Professional programme

The FIDIC Certified Consulting Professional programme (previously known as the FIDIC Certified Consulting Practitioner) has been tailored to match the early career candidates who come from a broad range of educational backgrounds and are working in, or have experience in, a consulting practice in the engineering and infrastructure sectors. We have had candidates from 21 countries for this programme and the interest is continuously growing, including from the participants of the Future Leaders Management Course, which can be considered as an excellent preparatory course for those wishing to sit the FCCP exam.

FIDIC Certified Consulting Engineer programme

The FIDIC Certified Consulting Engineer programme is now open for applications from all around the world. Taking on board all the lessons learnt from the FCCE pilot programme that was implemented in China, this newer version underwent a restructuring and now also focuses on the commercial and business aspects of the consulting practice. It is only suitable for engineers with at least five years of experience in the field. More than 734 certificates have so far been issued, including the recertification of the first two groups of FCCEs from the pilot programme in China, while the recertification procedures for the third group of FCCEs is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

FIDIC Certified Adjudicator programme

The FIDIC Certified Adjudicator programme is continuing its successful journey. 118 legacy and new adjudicators have completed the rigorous programme assessment and earned their certification. This has allowed them to be listed on the

FIDIC President’s List of Approved Dispute Adjudicators, which now has members from 42 different countries. The programme is expected to grow further, as the interest for DAAB services is booming in the infrastructure industry.

FIDIC Certified Contract Manager programme

The FIDIC Certified Contract Manager is the most popular of all the five programmes. Candidates are required to participate in a single examination and prove that they can apply their knowledge of FIDIC’s main contracts throughout the project’s lifecycle. Earlier in the year, the programme underwent a structural review and was converted into a fully multiple-choice questions exam, which assess the candidates’ skillset in the most objective manner. Almost 100 candidates from 51 different countries have successfully participated in the exams so far and have received their certification. All are listed on the FCL website.

FIDIC Certified Trainer programme

One of the most important programmes for the global FIDIC ecosystem is the FIDIC Certified Trainer programme. Following the recertification of all the legacy trainers, the programme was opened up for new trainers who can prove they have both the training skills and the technical expertise in their field to deliver the relevant training courses to a high standard. Since its inception, new trainers from 17 countries have been certified in the Fundamentals Construction Contract

category and only recently, five new trainers were certified in the Silver Book subcategory.

It is worth noting that FCL introduced a new system for issuing digital certificates and digital badges for their certificate holders. This system has increased security, verification and authentication attributes and allows our alumni to share and celebrate their accomplishments through their social media, thereby enhancing the FIDIC and FCL programmes’ brand awareness.

Marketing and promotion

Marketing and business development were the main focus points for the FCL management team over the course of the last year. The team participated in informational sessions, conferences and meetings organised by FIDIC member associations and is working to further promote the programmes through active engagement with all the FIDIC regions and members. At the same time, the implementation of an organic and paid digital marketing campaign, through the creation of flyers, videos and articles which have been shared through FCL’s corporate social media accounts, has contributed a great deal to an increased brand awareness of FCL and the benefits of certification for infrastructure professionals. With the assistance of the FIDIC events team, FIDIC certification programmes were also promoted during all the major FIDIC events and more B2B activities have been scheduled for the further promotion of FCL offerings in key regions.

Update on FIDIC Consulting Services (Beijing) Limited (FCS)

Over the past year, FCS has worked to support various FIDIC initiatives as well as to promote FCL certification activities.

In recent months, FCS supported FCL in delivering the recertification activities for the 2020 FCCEs from March to August. Following the delivery of the announcement, FCS, through its various communication channels, has coordinated efforts to motivate and encourage the 427 FCCE certificants to complete the recertification requirements. It was also important to ensure that each FCCE as well as their companies were notified well in advance.

During this process, FCS answered 350 inquiries and has since collected the supporting materials for their optional credit hours. Their submittals were reviewed and feedback was communicated with those whose supporting materials was insufficient. Thereafter, they were requested to provide more evidence to satisfy the minimum requirement of 24 credit hours. In addition, FCS coordinated with the FIDIC Academy to register the applicants for the compulsory segment of their CPD requirement and assisted them in completing this process within the two-week deadline. So far, 148 candidates have submitted their applications for recertification.

In July 2023, the FCS team facilitated a visit by a FIDIC delegation to Beijing. During this corporate visit to China, the FIDIC president, CEO, the newly appointed COO and FCL’s general manager met with the FCS team in the Beijing Office. The FIDIC delegation also had constructive meetings with the China member association, the China National Association of Engineering Consultants (CNAEC), the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA), the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, China Machine Press (CMP) and Tianjin

University. Due to careful planning and careful coordination, the meetings were successful and following the visit, an overall report was prepared and submitted to FIDIC.

One main aspect of the FCS activity over the last few months has been to maintain and enhance engagement with various stakeholders. FCS has, for example, had monthly meetings with CNAEC and maintained regular communications with CHINCA, the China Energy Conservation Association, China Association of International Engineering Consultants (CAIEC), CMP and the World Bank. Furthermore, FCS translated and delivered 40 news items which were posted by FIDIC and FCL, as well as ten FCCE bulletins which were shared through FCS’s WeChat and the website during the reporting period. FCS has also drafted a proposal for a Contract Users’ Conference-China 2023 event and preparations for this are ongoing.

FCS is pleased to continue to provide its support to FIDIC on its various initiatives. Efforts have also been made to promote the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference 2023 event among the FCCEs and various stakeholders. FCS has also assisted with the negotiation and establishment of training and certification agreements as prepared between FIDIC, FIDIC Credentialing Ltd and CHINCA. The team has also offered its support for the procedures and meetings which relate to the renewal of the MOUs between FIDIC and CAIEC. Finally, FCS has liaised with stakeholders regarding the royalty payment due from CMP to FIDIC.

For the rest of the year ahead, FCS will be focused on the completion of the recertification procedures for the 2020 group of FCCEs, the implementation of the second Contract Users’ Conference-China and on ensuring that our end of year objectives are met.

FIDIC Awards –showcasing and highlighting industry achievement

During the year under review, FIDIC has once again showcased and highlighted the achievements of the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector through its popular industry awards programmes.

The winners of the FIDIC Contract Users’ Awards 2022 were unveiled at a gala dinner event on 29 November 2022 at the Tower Hotel in London as part of the Official FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference. The awards recognise excellence in the use of FIDIC contract forms for project delivery and showcase examples of good practice through collaboration from across the world.

The quality of the entries in the fourth year of these awards was high with a diverse range of submissions over a wide geographical spread. The Contract Users’ Project of the Year Award was won by the Design and Construction of La Mesa Water Treatment Plant 1 (LMTP1) in the Philippines. The judges were impressed with a very successful project which used the FIDIC Yellow Book contract. Claims and variations were finalised in a timely fashion, even during the challenging period of the pandemic and there were strong sustainability measures.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India won the Contract Users’ Client of the Year Award, impressing the judges by the wide range of amazing projects undertaken, their selection of contractors and consultants which followed well known ways of procurement and also their use of FIDIC

contracts, especially the Yellow Book.

The Trainer of the Year Award was won by Salvador P Castro Jr. The judges said that he was a worthy winner as it was clear from his entry and the endorsements it contained that people were really learning and enjoying their learning when being trained by him. Not only did Castro rise to the challenge of training during the Covid pandemic, but he did so through innovative and interesting methods which captivated and engaged his audiences.

Major UK law firm Fenwick Elliott took the Legal Firm of the Year Award, winning praise from the judges for being very active in educating the whole industry on legal issues. The judges said that Fenwick Elliott had strength in many areas, especially in education and training on FIDIC contracts and were proactive across different regions of the world.

Meanwhile, in the 2023 FIDIC Project Awards, the awards judging panel have identified 30 projects that met the elevated criteria to receive an Award of Merit. The projects are an international selection drawn from Australia, Botswana, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Ireland, Mozambique, Philippines, Singapore, Somalia, South Korea, United States and Vietnam. From among these 30 projects, 16 have been selected to win an additional Award of Excellence, which will be revealed during a gala awards dinner presentation at FIDIC’s Global

Infrastructure Conference in Singapore in September.

Singapore will also see the announcement of the winners of the 2023 FIDIC Member Association Excellence Awards. The awards shortlist includes entries from nine FIDIC member associations who will compete for awards across the following categories – Advocacy/Lobbying Campaign, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, Events and Conferences, Industry Collaboration and Significant or Outstanding Achievement. The awards reward and highlight the achievements and successes of FIDIC’s international member associations and the work they do representing the global consulting industry.

Also in Singapore, the winners of FIDIC’s Future Leaders Awards for 2023 will be announced. Following a record number of entries, the judges have chosen a shortlist of four from which a winner will be chosen.

FIDIC’s awards continue to attract a high number of quality entries, showing that the appetite of the industry to gain recognition for its excellence and achievement remains undimmed, ensuring that these ever-popular and prestigious awards programmes are set to go from strength to strength.

Representing the industry all around the world

FIDIC’s global efforts are supported by the activities of a number of regional groupings or organisations with which FIDIC collaborates closely to ensure that the consulting engineering industry is well represented in all parts of the globe. The regional updates below highlight key activities and developments that have taken place over the past year in the North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.

Africa update

President of FIDIC Africa, Abe Thela, gives an update on the latest activities of the organisation which represents FIDIC member associations across the African continent.

The opportunity to host our second in-person post-Covid-19 FIDIC Africa Infrastructure Conference in Livingstone, Zambia this year was made even more memorable by it being graced by the physical presence of the FIDIC president Tony Barry, president-elect Catherine Karakatsanis and FIDIC’s CEO, Dr Nelson Ogunshakin. Attendees to this year’s conference, who came from more than 30 countries, numbered just over 200 this year, with the number of attendees from countries other than that of the host, significantly increased.

Aside from other aspects surrounding the FIDIC regionalisation strategy, it is worth mentioning that the assistance of the technical support platforms provided by FIDIC certainly made a positive difference to the exposure and experience persons signing up to attend this conference in Zambia previously might have had. Plans are already underway for the 2024 conference which is to be hosted by the Association of Consulting Engineers of Tanzania in Dar Es Salaam.

In the past year, we started with the implementation of five committees in line with our strategic objectives to drive ahead with growth and Membership, business development and stakeholder engagement, communications and conferencing, capacity building, professionalism and business best practice and, finally, integrity, quality, risk and standards.

Each of these committees is chaired by a member of our executive committee and in this instance, yet again, there is evidence of the regionalisation strategy at work, as committee meetings are all hosted on FIDIC’s Teams platform with the support of the FIDIC Secretariat, much in the same manner that the FIDIC executive team has been able to meet on a monthly basis. FIDIC Africa is now also officially registered as a non-profit company in South Africa with the banking account for the organisation now also managed in the same country, consistent with the decision to streamline the operations in the same location as that of the secretariat.

FIDIC Africa’s Future Leaders committee, which had become dysfunctional between 2020 and early 2022, is now back to its former energetic level of functionality and a fruitful Future Leaders seminar was held at the conference in

Zambia this year, led by an elected chair and supported by several office bearers.

Attracting Francophone countries to join our ranks is still a challenge. The FIDIC regionalisation strategy has gained even more momentum and the FIDIC Africa model is being used to inform the further development of other regional bodies, such as Asia Pacific. Furthermore, we are in the process of strengthening the recognition of FIDIC Africa, not only at a commercial level with MDBs in keeping with the recognition enjoyed by FIDIC, but we are also working on such relationships at an African Union level, so that respective governments in our region embrace the member associations in their countries as trusted advisors in their efforts towards developing sustainable infrastructure and working towards meeting the UN sustainable development goals.

We have also started to communicate with the Office of the African Union commissioner for infrastructure and energy in this regard and have received responses to our unsolicited approaches and are hopeful of further developments following the commencement of this initiative.

Update from North America

American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) President and CEO, Linda Bauer Darr, gives an overview of the activities of FIDIC in North America.

Bryant, executive director of the ACEC Institute. MA leadership included chair Art Barrett, chair-elect Jay Wolverton, Mike Carragher, ACEC Institute chair and Richard Stump, chair of the FIDIC integrity management committee. Representing FIDIC was board member, Manish Kothari.

Participating on behalf of CNEC, Mexico were Juan Carlos, president and Fernando Favela, vice president, international. Participating on behalf of ACEC, Canada were Tim Stanley, chair, Allison Desgressellier, chair-elect and John Gamble, president and CEO and Martine Proulx, vice president. Catherine Karakatsanis, president-elect of FIDIC was also a key attendee.

Long-term we still face the challenge of inspiring young people to think about engineering as career. ACEC is working with the White House to celebrate major transformational infrastructure projects in a way that is intended to appeal to this next generation of engineers – talking about project outcomes and what it means for local communities versus using engineer-speak to describe the technical aspects of the project. What engineers do has meaning to the public and we need to talk about infrastructure investment in terms of how it impacts people on a daily basis, making communities safer, more resilient, more sustainable and more equitable.

FIDIC North America was pleased to hold its first in-person leadership meeting in Chicago, Illinois. On 13 April, the American Council of Engineering Companies hosted its two North American counterparts of ACEC, Canada and CNEC, Mexico for our inaugural in-person meeting.

This inaugural meeting was attended by each of the MAs’ leadership. Attending on behalf of ACEC were Linda Bauer Darr, president and CEO, Steve Hall, executive vice president and Daphne

The three MAs spent the day focusing on issues facing the engineering industry that provide challenges to our member firms. Items discussed included addressing workforce shortages and how to attract and retain the next generation of engineers. That discussion also furthered the conversation of addressing policies impacting immigration and working across our three borders, as well as improving opportunities for those educated in North America.

Update from Pan-America

At ACEC’s Annual Convention and Legislative Summit, ACEC was pleased to host FIDIC and ACEC Canada leadership and provide them with a forum to address members of ACEC to learn the value proposition that FIDIC provides member firms.

Following the April 2023 meeting, we are looking forward to build our momentum by developing a newsletter to highlight the activities, events and accomplishments of the three national associations, so we can advance areas of common interest to the membership of each MA.

President of FEPAC, Henrique de Aragão, gives his update on the latest activities of the organisation which represents FIDIC member associations across Pan-America.

Paraguay, Peru and Portugal. Links are maintained with the associations of Venezuela, Bolivia, Panama and Uruguay, with the intention that in future they will be integrated or work actively in the federation.

about the planet’s excessive pollution are also driving a global commitment to zero carbon emissions.

FEPAC member associations represent 13 countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Honduras, Mexico,

The Latin American region has political problems of instability and difficulty in maintaining high growth rates to mitigate social problems in which there are strong social inequalities. Concerns

FEPAC aims to be an important forum for discussion of alternatives for companies affiliated to associations and national chambers and thus strengthen the capacity of our consultancy. During 2022, FEPAC was able to provide important support to its constituent countries on a range of issues.

The celebration of the 50th anniversary of FEPAC and the publication of a book prepared for the occasion, allowed us to remember the effort of engineering consultancies in the construction of infrastructure and outstanding ventures in the region. These projects and services were recorded in the book and were the subject of a major competition to recognise consultancy’s achievements.

FEPAC held its 2022 general assembly in Lima, Peru. The event, organised in collaboration with the Peruvian Consulting Association, was held on 25 March 2022 and included attendance from international experts and also important authorities, ambassadors of the member countries in FEPAC and various stakeholders from the world of engineering. The signing of an inter-institutional agreement between FEPAC and ALIDE- Latin American Association of Development Finance Institutions was a highlight, as well as

Asia-Pacific update

presentations by FIDIC, IDB, World Bank, WWF, Autodesk and BIM Forum, among others.

To develop a common platform of concepts used in the development of infrastructure projects across the region, FEPAC has developed a glossary that dictates the equivalence of terms used in all countries. This covers the integral cycle of infrastructure projects (planning, programming, preparation, bidding, financing, supervision/inspection/control, project management, monitoring of execution and operation).

To expand communication channels with its affiliates, during 2022 four issues of the FEPAC Bulletin were issued, focusing on our publications, services and activities to support associations, as well as articles by specialists in critical areas for the life of associations.

The creation of the committees in FEPAC has been part of the significant strengthening and improvement of the

structure and capacity for relations with stakeholders and international external affairs. The new technologies and innovation committee meets monthly with the aim of identifying and mapping innovation and technology trends, as well as seeking solutions. The international institutions and financial institutions committee is also active, recently supporting a webinar on the importance of professional liability insurance for engineering in Latin America.

The sustainability committee continues to work with WWF and is looking to undertake a survey to collect information to compile a document, Challenges for Consulting in the Development of Environmentally Sustainable Projects and Services, which will be developed jointly with WWF with the aim of developing a series of guidelines for best practices in engineering projects and services for a more sustainable planet.

President of FIDIC Asia-Pacific, Sudhir Dhawan, gives his update on the latest activities of the organisation which represents FIDIC member associations across the Asia-Pacific region.

Over the past 12 months, FIDIC Asia-Pacific (FAP) has organised a number of events. These included a successful webinar on New Infrastructure Construction and Digital Transformation in January, organised through CNAEC China. A series of training programmes was also conducted by FIDIC board member Dr Sarwono Hardjomuljadi of Indonesia involving six different sessions, very well managed by Widhoon Chiamchittrong and his team from Thailand.

The FIDIC Asia-Pacific board and the committees met quite a few times during the year. Tuk Lal Adhikari was inducted as the board member in place of Y.J Lee who retired on 30 September 2022 after completing three years. The appreciated the proactive participation of Mr Lee in various activities of FAP. Zhou Sheng of China resigned as board member as he was not able to participate in board meetings due to his relocation to a remote

area. The board accepted his resignation and agreed to appoint Huang Xigong, who was proposed by CNAEC. The board has also appointed Dilini Gamage as chair of the Future Leaders group.

meetings. Dilini has been managing social media accounts of FAP, including Linkedin and Twitter. FAP is also planning to have its own website.

FAP is also trying to recruit some members from the Pacific region. Future major events include the 2023 annual conference in Bangkok on 26-28 November 2023, where CEAT is the organiser and also the annual conference of 2024 to be held in Nepal.

The board has confirmed that the permanent secretariat will be located in New Delhi, India and managed by the Consulting Engineers Association of India. FAP obtained names and contact details of all members and a directory was published which will be updated every year. The Future Leaders group played an active role and participated in committee

FAP has also been releasing quarterly newsletters. Our objective is to establish FIDIC Asia-Pacific as one of the most active regional groups of FIDIC and to do this we will need the active support of all our member associations across the region.

As in the previous year, the Consulting Engineers Association of India managed the secretariat of FIDIC Asia-Pacific without any payment.

Europe update

President of the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA), Inés Ferguson, offers an update on some of the latest activities of EFCA and FIDIC Europe on behalf of the engineering consultancy industry in Europe.

level speaker providing a video message and a speaker from the relevant unit in Brussels in the panel session on Ukraine.

The main joint activity of the past year was the FIDIC-EFCA webinar in October 2022 on Boosting project preparation of quality infrastructure with MDBs. This event attracted speakers from the G20 Global Infrastructure Hub, as well as EIB Global, EBRD, AfDB and the World Bank. The presidents of EFCA and FIDIC opened the event and publicity included posts on EFCA’s Linkedin page, which now has more than 3,000 followers.

Under the European External Action Committee, EFCA launched the Ukraine Support Group, early in 2023. This group has two experts from FIDIC and the rest of its participants are engineers and member associations with expertise in the country and/or experience of working in conflict zones. EFCA’s Ukrainian member association, ICEG, is also involved. The group has supported the European Commission, with several meetings with the department responsible for the reconstruction effort (DG NEAR). The European Commission also participated in EFCA’s conference in Rome, with a high

EFCA signed a joint statement on Ukraine, with the Construction 2050 Alliance. This was published in Spring 2023 and promoted on Linkedin, acknowledging the contribution of FIDIC’s representatives. Early in 2023, the latest edition of the EFCA Sector Review was published. It included a ranking of the 125 largest engineering consultancies in Europe. FIDIC’s CEO was a guest at EFCA’s 30th anniversary reception in November 2022, which was attended by an important guest from the European Commission, Katharina Knapton-Vierlich, as well as member of the European Parliament Sirpa Pietikäinen, an influential figure in EU construction-related policy making. The anniversary also marked the launch of EFCA’s manifesto, Delivering a resilient, green and digital built environment, which contains specific recommendations for the EU institutions, also important to FIDIC and its members.

The Future Trends Committee also launched a second report on future scenarios for the industry, to support firms with strategic decisions.

All EFCA’s committees were active. Highlights include a joint statement of intent with buildingSMART International, initiated by the digitalisation and BIM committee and the launch of a joint toolkit on sustainable procurement, with European International Contractors (EIC). There were also several meetings with EU officials and EFCA speakers in several EU webinars.

Throughout the year, FIDIC’s CEO and EFCA’s director general had bi-monthly update meetings.

FIDIC member associations and associates

Albania

Albanian Association of Consulting Engineers - aace.al

Australia

Consult Australia consultaustralia.com.au

Austria

Austrian Consultants Association ACA aca.co.at

Bangladesh

Bangladesh Association of Consulting Engineers - bacenetbd.org

Belgium

Organisation des Bureaux d’Ingenieurs-Conseils, d’Ingenierie et de Consultance - ori.be

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Association of Consulting Engineers of Bosnia and Herzegowina - uki.ba

Botswana

Association of Consulting Engineers

Botswana - aceb.org.bw

Brazil

Associação Brasileira de Consultores de Engenharia - abceconsultoria.org.br

Bulgaria

Bulgarian Association of Consulting Engineers and Architects bacea-bg.org/

Canada

Association of Consulting Engineering Companies, Canada - acec.ca

China

China National Association of Engineering Consultants cnaec.org.cn

China, Hong Kong

Association of Consulting Engineers of Hong Kong, China - acehk.org.hk

China, Taiwan

Chinese Association of Engineering Consultants caec.org.tw

Colombia

Cámara Colombiana de la Infraestructura (CCI) infraestructura.org.co

Costa Rica

Cámara de Consultores en Arquitectura e Ingeniería camaraconsultorescr.org

Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos de Costa Rica cfia.or.cr

Croatia Association of Consulting Companies in Construction sinisa.radakovic@exstructa.hr

Cyprus

Cyprus Association of Civil Engineers (CYACE) spolmik.org

Czech Republic

Czech Association of Consulting Engineer - cace.cz

Côte d’Ivoire

Chambre Nationale des Ingénieurs

Conseils et Experts du Génie Civil chanie.org

Denmark

Foreningen af Rådgivende Ingeniører frinet.dk

Egypt

Egyptian Consulting Engineering Association sherif.wassef@wassefdesigngroup.com

Finland

Finnish Association of Consulting Firms skolry.fi

France

CINOV/SYNTEC-Ingénierie - cinov.fr syntec-ingenierie.fr

Georgia

Georgian Association of Consulting Engineers - aceg.ge

Germany Verband Beratender Ingenieure vbi.de

Ghana

Ghana Consulting Engineers Association gcea.org.gh

Greece

Hellenic Association of Consulting Firms - segm.gr

Hungary

Association of Hungarian Consulting Engineers and Architects - tmsz.org

Iceland

Félag Rádgjafarverkfrædinga - frv.is

India

Consulting Engineers Association of India - ceai.org.in

Indonesia

Indonesian National Association of Consultants inkindo-dki.org

Ireland

Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland - acei.ie

Islamic Republic of Iran

Iranian Society of Consulting Engineers irsce.org

Israel

Israeli Organization of Consulting Engineers and Architects - iocea.org.il

Italy

INARSIND/OICE inarsind.it/oice.it

Japan

Engineering and Consulting Firms

Association, Japan ecfa.or.jp

Jordan

Jordan Architects and Consulting Engineers Council - jea.org.jo

members

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan National Association of Professional Engineers and Consultants - knapec.kz

Kenya

Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya - acek.co.ke

Latvia

Latvian Association of Consulting Engineers - lika.lv

Lebanon

Lebanese Association of Consulting Engineers - oea.org.lb

Lithuania

Lithuanian Association of Consulting Companies - lacc.lt

Luxembourg

Ordre des Architectes et des Ingénieurs-conseils, d’Ingénierie et de Consultance - oai.lu

Malaysia Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia - acem.com.my

Maldives

Riyan Private Limited riyan.com.mv

Mali

Ordre Ingenieurs Conseils Du Mali (OICM) - oicm.ml

Mauritius

Association of Consulting Engineers, Mauritius sootam.vyyaassconsulting@orange.mu

Mexico

Cámara Nacional de Empresas de Consultoría de México - cnec.org.mx

Moldova

Association of Consulting Engineers in Republic of Moldova (ARMIC) armic.md

Mongolia

Mongolian Road Association - mra.mn

Morocco Fédération Marocaine du Conseil et de l’Ingénierie - fmci.ma

Mozambique

Associaçao de Empresas Moçambicanas de Consultoria (AEMC) aemc.org.mz

Nepal Society of Consulting Architectural and Engineering Firms, Nepal scaef.org.np

Netherlands

NLingenieurs - nlingenieurs.nl

New Zealand

The Association of Consulting and Engineering New Zealand Incorporated acenz.org.nz

Nigeria Association for Consulting Engineering in Nigeria - acen.org.ng

Norway Rådgivende Ingeniørers Forening rif.no

Pakistan Association of Consulting Engineers

Pakistan - acep.org.pk

Palestine, State of Engineers Association - paleng.org

Peru

Asociación Peruana de Consultoría (APC) - apcperu.org

Philippines Council of Engineering Consultants of the Philippines - cecophil.org

million 1.2

engineering professionals

Poland

Stowarzyszenie Inzynierów Doradców i Rzeczoznawców (SIDIR) - sidir.pl

Portugal

Associação Portuguesa de Projectistas e Consultores appconsultores.org.pt

Republic of Korea

Korea Engineering and Consulting Association - kenca.org

Republic of North

Macedonia

Association of Consulting Engineers of Macedonia - acem.org.mk

Romania

Romanian Association of Consulting Engineers (ARIC) - aric.org.ro

Russian Federation RAEC / NACEC nacec.ru/

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Council of Engineers saudieng.sa

Serbia

Association of Consulting Engineers in Serbia - aces.rs

5

regional groups

Singapore

Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore - aces.org.sg

Slovakia

Slovak Association of Consulting Engineers - sace.sk

Slovenia

National Association of Consulting Engineers of Slovenia - gzs.si

South Africa

Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) - cesa.co.za

Spain

Asociación española de empresas de Ingeniería, Consultoría y Servicios Tecnológicos (TECNIBERIA) tecniberia.es

Sri Lanka

Association of Consulting Engineers, Sri Lanka - acesl.org

Sudan

Sudanese Engineering and Architecture Consultancy Association siham.mahjoub@newtech-consulting.ae

Suriname

Orde van Raadgevende Ingenieurs in Suriname - sunecon@sr.net

spanning continents

Sweden

5

Innovationsföretagen - The Federation of Swedish Innovation Companies innovationsforetagen.se

Switzerland

Union Suisse des Ingénieurs-Conseils usic.ch

Thailand

Consulting Engineers Association of Thailand (CEAT) - ceat.or.th

Trinidad and Tobago

Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry - jcc.org.tt

Turkey

Association of Turkish Consulting Engineers and Architects tmmmb.org.tr

Uganda

Uganda Association of Consulting Engineers - uace.or.ug

Ukraine

Association of Engineers-Consultants of Ukraine - aecu.org.ua

United Arab Emirates

Society of Engineers - UAE soeuae.ae

United Kingdom

Association of Consultancy and Engineering - acenet.co.uk

40,000

Representing firms

United Republic of Tanzania

Association of Consulting Engineers Tanzania - acet.or.tz

United States of America

American Council of Engineering Companies - acec.org

Uzbekistan

Association of Consulting Engineers of Uzbekistan - uzace.uz

Vietnam

Vietnam Engineering Consultant Association - vecas.org.vn

Zambia

Association of Consulting Engineers of Zambia - acez.co.zm

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Association of Consulting Engineers - zace.co.zw

FIDIC’s digital expansionprogress and innovation

Amidst the ongoing shift towards digitalisation, FIDIC’s strategic investments in digital technology and infrastructure continue to yield notable outcomes. The organisation’s adept use of these digital advancements has not only improved connections and engagement but has also positioned it as a leader in an industry rapidly adapting to the modern age’s demands.

Swoogo sets the stage for enhanced event experiences

A significant accomplishment during this period has been the expansion of the Swoogo event management platform. FIDIC has utilised its capabilities, not only for major conferences like the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference, but also for all FIDIC events and conferences, including FIDIC Africa’s regional conference. This expanded use of Swoogo has redefined how FIDIC events are organised and experienced, providing attendees and speakers with improved information and interactivity that enhance the conference atmosphere, user experience and overall promotion of FIDIC’s events portfolio.

FIDIC launches FIDIC Academy’s standalone platform

Another notable step forward has been the introduction of the FIDIC Academy’s dedicated website. This standalone platform demonstrates FIDIC’s commitment to continuous learning and professional development in the industry. The new website, launched in 2023, facilitates the promotion of FIDIC Academy’s courses and training programmes to a wider audience, serving as a hub for industry professionals looking to enhance their skills and expertise.

Increasing social media engagement

An important achievement during this period has been the steady increase in FIDIC’s social media influence. The

organisation’s following across platforms has experienced substantial growth, accompanied by higher engagement rates. By exploring various media types and enhancing digital copy, we have seen a doubling in interaction with FIDIC posts. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook serve as active channels for sharing important news, committee outputs and announcements, while FCS (Beijing) effectively utilises WeChat to expand FIDIC’s reach in China.

Digital transformation committee leads the way Central to FIDIC’s digital advancements has been the establishment of the digital transformation committee. This strategic move underscores FIDIC’s dedication to leveraging technological innovations to their fullest potential. Under the leadership of Stacy Sinclair, partner and head of technology and innovation at Fenwick Elliott, the committee spearheads digital initiatives, ensuring that FIDIC and its stakeholders remain at the forefront of digital adoption, innovation and adaptability.

A future focused on innovation

FIDIC’s journey of digital innovation is marked by significant milestones and the organisation is poised to continue this momentum. As FIDIC enters the next phase of its digital evolution, the industry can expect further initiatives that enhance communication, learning and engagement.

Enabling a digital future

In an era defined by digital progress, FIDIC serves as an example of adaptability and vision. The digital accomplishments of 2022-2023 showcase FIDIC’s role in shaping the global landscape of engineering, construction and infrastructure. As the organisation moves forward, its commitment to innovation, education and connectivity, promises an exciting path for FIDIC and the industry it serves.

FIDIC staff team

Dr

Nelson Ogunshakin OBE Chief Executive Officer, nogunshakin@fidic.org

Italo Goyzueta, Federation Operations Director, igoyzueta@fidic.org

Eric Chiang, Chief Operating Officer, echiang@fidic.org

Graham Pontin, Director of Policy, External Affairs and Communications, gpontin@fidic.org

Oro Cohen, Assistant, Federation Services, ocohen@fidic.org

Michael Broadley, General Manager, FIDIC Academy, mbroadley@fidic.org

Daduna Kokhreidze, General Counsel, dkokhreidze@fidic.org

Nadia Van Der Waltova, Senior Digital Marketing and Communications Executive, nvanderwaltova@fidic.org

Folake Idowu, Senior Corporate Development Executive, fidowu@fidic.org

Maria-Blanca Trabazos, Accountant and HR, mbtrabazos@fidic.org

Christophe Sisto, Design and Publications Manager, csisto@fidic.org

Ieva Liaugaude, International Client Manager, iliaugaude@fidic.org

Estelle Trabazos, Accountant Assistant, etrabazos@fidic.org

Ulrike Schiefer, Office Manager, uschiefer@fidic.org

Thanos Totsikas, General Manager FCL, ttotsikas@fidic.org

Chanel Holder, Digital Marketing and Communications Executive cholder@fidic.org

Lee Ann Davis, FCL Certification Assistant, ldavis@fidic.org

Beatriz Bertomeu, Conference and Events Executive, bbertomeu@fidic.org

Moyosore Saka, Contracts Assistant, msaka@fidic.org

Wendy Lasebikan, Advisor - Legal and Compliance, wlasebikan@fidic.org

Basma Eissa, Policy Analyst Executive, beissa@fidic.org

Ayo Fagbohun, Business Development Manager, afagbohun@fidic.org

Emily Jones, FCL Certification Coordinator, ejones@fidic.org

Chrystal Udenweze, Academy Coordinator, cudenweze@fidic.org

Silvia Fossati, Training Manager sfossati@fidic.org

Ruijie Zhang FCS General Manager zhangrj@fidic.org

Samuel Mwamsamali Regional Manager smwamsamali@fidic.org