ASPAC
FIDIC Member Associations in the Asia-Pacific Region（1）

ASPAC asia-pacific region news
No.6: December 2007

ASPAC Executive Committee Meeting at FIDIC 2007 Conference inSingapore, September 2007
The FIDIC Member Associations of Asia-Pacific Region (ASPAC) Executive Committee (EC)Meeting was held at FIDIC 2007 Conference in Singapore on 11 September 2007.

The meeting

was chaired by Mr. Akihito Hirotani (AJCE, Japan), and had other four EC members, namely Mr.
S.P. Castro (CECOPHIL, Philippines), Mr. K.K. Kapila (CEAI, India), Mr. Karamat Chaudry(ACEP, Pakistan), and Mr. Yap Kok Ming (ACEM, Malaysia) with attendance of Mr. SubhashMehrotra, EC Member of FIDIC.

After

confirmation of the last minutes of meeting inBudapest, EC members discussed the electionof a new ASPAC EC member since the termof the present Mr. Adam Thornton (ACENZ,New Zealand), the present EC member, will
end up to the next General Assembly Meeting(GAM).

It was agreed that a new EC

member would be elected by vote in the GAM
held in the next day from three candidates
coming from Australia, Nepal and Vietnam.
The Chairman then presented “ASPAC Action Plan” which illustrated medium-term activities ofASPAC between 2007 and 2009, and asked the members to propose the Plan to GAM.
members endorsed his idea.

The“ASPAC Action Plan” is described in detail later.

Finally, training programs of ASPAC members were discussed.

Mr. Castro informed that

CECOPHIL would have an International Contracts Training Course planned on October 2007.
Since FIDIC training courses held in Europe and US are too expensive for ASPAC Member
Association (MA) to participate, it would be very useful to utilize this kind of course that a lecturer
is appointed from local FIDIC experts.

The members agreed that ASPAC could provide

information on such courses so that MAs could disseminate the information to their members.

ASPAC General Assembly Meeting at FIDIC 2007 Conference in Singapore,
September 2007
The ASPAC General Assembly Meeting was also held during the FIDIC Conference on 12

ASPACFIDIC Member Associations in the Asia-Pacific Region（2）

September 2007.

We firstly discussed

the selection of a new ASPAC EC
member from three nominees, i.e., Mr.
Dennis Sheehan, President of ACEA
(Australia),Mr.

KeshavKunwar,

President of SCAEF (Nepal), and Mr.
Nguyen Canh Chat, President of VECAS(Vietnam).

As a result, voting subject tothese three candidates was conducted, andMr. Sheehan was then elected as an
ASPAC EC member until year of 2010.
After the election, “ASPAC Action Plan” was presented by Mr. Hirotani, the Chaiman of GAM, andagreed its concept and concrete actions.

As the same as EC Meeting in the previous day, Mr.

Castro from the Philippines insisted on importance of training programs in terms of contracting andinformed that CECOPHIL would have an international training course on October 2007 in Manila.

ASPAC Action Plan 2007-2009
ASPAC Action Plan 2007-2009 aims at promoting better relations among ASPAC member
associations in order to commoditize information and expand business chances in the Asia-Pacificregion.

These actions result in enhancing interaction within the member associations more andmore, and in expanding their business opportunities.

These results are also expected to bring in an

increase of the number of consultant associations representing countries which wish to join ASPAC
and consequently the number of FIDIC member association shall grow.
The Action Plan consists of three stages.

The target of the first year, i.e., year of 2007 is “Raising

Awareness and Creating Communication Environment among the MAs.”

To achieve this target,

the following actions are to be conducted:
1a

ASPAC News Letter will be issued periodically and reported on ASPAC page of FIDIC website;

1b

Information regarding annual action plans for each member association shall be provided for
ASPAC secretariat which at this moment is AJCE (Association of Japanese ConsultingEngineers). Secretariat shall start compiling and tabulating the information. The annualaction plans of the member associations after the compilation and tabulation shall be reported on
ASPAC page of FIDIC web site in order; and1c

A list of field of expertise, the number of engineers, and so on for each member association shallbe displayed on ASPAC page of FIDIC web site.

ASPACFIDIC Member Associations in the Asia-Pacific Region（3）

The target of the year of 2008, the second year of the Plan is “Gathering and Arranging
Information from the MAs and Providing it for their Needs.”

Based on the first year’s

performance, the member associations shall implement the following actions:
2aInformation regarding annual action plans, a list of field of expertise, the number of engineers,and so on for all member associations shall be displayed on ASPAC page of FIDIC web site;and2bNews and activity reports of all member associations shall be collected and compiled by thesecretariat and put on ASPAC page of FIDIC web site.

The target of the last year, year of 2009, is “Securing Consistency and Sustainability of ASPAC
Activities, and Presenting Directions toward the Future.”

In the final year, continuation andreinforcement of the past activities are indispensable, and the following actions shall be carried out:
3aPerformance in three years shall be reviewed and general directions of the follow up actions for
ASPAC shall be proposed; and3b

Problems for establishment of ASPAC permanent secretariat shall be identified and sorted out,
and solutions of the problems shall be suggested.

Now, the first year is nearly ended, and so it is cordially requested to each member association that
information regarding annual action plans and a list of field of expertise, the number of engineers,and so on should be sent to ASPAC secretariat, i.e., AJCE (Association of Japanese ConsultingEngineers) as soon as possible.

Country Report from Member Associations
We are pleased to inform you the activity of our member associations as follows.
BACE (Bangladesh)

Bangladesh Association of Consulting Engineers

BACE has been conducting regular Seminars/Workshops for “Capacity Building” of its
Member-Firms.

In the next half year, the following topics will be covered:• Necessity of Forensic Engineering in Bangladesh;• Safety Consideration and Practices in Replacement of existing aging Bridges and Culverts;• Concrete Additives in Modern Construction; and• New Thoughts on Development of Human Resources in the Backdrop of Globalization.

BACE conducts the above Seminars as training programmes to the Young Professionals of ourMember Firms, by local qualified and competent engineers.
BACE, being a founder member of TCDPAP as well as being its current President of TCDPAP,
intends to send a strong delegation in the next TCDPAP Annual Conference (2008) to be held inSeoul.

ASPACFIDIC Member Associations in the Asia-Pacific Region（4）

ACEP (Pakistan)

Association of Consulting Engineers Pakistan

ACEP has a plan to conduct the following Seminars:
1.

Roundtable Conference of Engineering Consultants with ASPAC Executive Members for
Adaptation of National Agenda for Growth of Engineering Consultancy Services in Pakistan.

2.

National Seminar on Consulting Services: International Practices vs. Domestic Regulations.

ACEP conducts two days training program for the Civil Engineers on application of Pakistan
Building Code with specific emphasis on seismic design.
15 days workshop is also conducted on craftsman training to be jointly organized by ACEP,APCA (All Pakistan Contractor Association) and Federal Government.
AJCE (Japan)

Association of Japanese Consulting Engineers

AJCE has a plan to have the following seminars or conferences according to its annual schedule.
Seminars on DAB and/or DBO are still now under consideration to be held.
•October 5, 2007 Seminar on FIDIC Singapore Conference•

November 22, 2007 AJCE Annual Seminar

Training program together with above seminars will be held as a part of major activities of AJCE,
being received well as an annually provided service for member firms.

Participants are offered

CPD credits, which is compulsory in Japan for registered professional engineers.
•October,2007 Australia-Japan Young Professional Exchange Program (AJCE accepts
several young engineers from Australia this year）•November 5, 2007 Seminar on Continuing Professional Development Seminar

AJCE has the other activities as follows:•January 9, 2006 New Year's Greetings Exchange Meeting•March, 2006 Publication of “AJCE Newsletter(English)”

VECAS (Vietnam)

Vietnam Engineering Consultant Association

VECAS has a plan to have the following seminars or conferences:•Seminar on the Independent Consultant•

Annual Conference on VECAS

The following training programs are planned:•Four new FIDIC of contracts;•Vietnamese laws and regulations relationship with Engineering Consultant services; and•Training courses on enhancing the capacity of Engineering Consultants in Vietnam, such as
Quality Supervision, Procurement Procedure, Financial Management, Project Management,
Standard and Code in Construction in Vietnam.

VECAS has also the following plans to be implemented:

ASPACFIDIC Member Associations in the Asia-Pacific Region（5）•To take part in the building process laws and regulations that are related to VECAS andVECAS member activities;•To propose with the government and other bodies for implementing some items in the lawsand regulations that are not corresponded with VECAS and VECAS member activities andtheir doing business; and•To establish relationship with other associations in the world for exchanging the experiencesand extending the cooperation between Vietnamese engineering society and others.

ASPAC Secretariat
3-16-4, Ueno, Taito-ku, TOKYO 110-0005 JAPAN(Association of Japanese Consulting Engineers)
Tel : +81-3-389-8471 / Fax: +81-3-389-8472