The 2012 Mainland and Hong Kong Construction Industry Forum, organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China, Chongqing Municipal People’s Government and Development Bureau, HKSARG, was held from 17 to 19 June 2012 in Chongqing (重慶). The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors was one of the co-organizers of this event. There were more than 300 delegates from government departments, professional organizations, other organizations of the Hong Kong Construction Industry, and representatives from the Mainland present. The HKIS delegation was led by our President, Sr Serena Lau. Eight members from the Quantity Surveying Divisional Council, viz. Senior Vice President, Sr Stephen Lai; Past Chairman, Sr Gilbert Kwok; Immediate Past Chairman, Sr Antony Man; Vice Chairmen, Sr Keith Yim and Sr Honby Chan; Council Members, Sr Thomas Tse, Sr Anthony Lau, and Sr Mickey Wong; and I also joined the forum.

 

The theme of this year’s forum was “Sustainable Urban Form: City Land Use and Town Planning” (可持續城市形態：城市土地利用與城市規劃). Various distinguished speakers from both the Mainland and Hong Kong were invited to share their precious experiences on this theme. The key areas covered were city land use strategy, city land use and town planning, and city land use implementation. The forum also included site visits to a commercial and residential development and museums.

 

After the forum, we took the opportunity to meet with our members who are working in Chongqing to talk about their lives and duties in Chongqing and how we could improve our communications with them.

 

The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week was held in Rome from 6 to 10 May 2012. Our QSD Council Member, Sr Tzena Wong, presented a paper titled, “Webbased Document Management Systems in the Construction Industry”, in one of the technical sessions and was voted the best presenter by the audience. The session chair prepared his nationally famous “Czech Beer” as the award. Tzena, who is also the vice-chair of Commission 10 of the FIG, cochaired two other technical sessions, both of which were packed. Congratulations to Tzena for her great work.

 

Eleven members of the Shanghai Construction Consultants Association visited the HKIS on 15 June 2012. The QSD arranged a site visit to a low density residential development project on Tsing Fat Lane, Tuen Mun, on that day.

 

This event was organized by our Council Member, Sr Joe Wu. Its purpose was to demonstrate to our guests the planning, contractual arrangement, procurement method, construction technology, project management, site constraints, and site particulars of this project.

 

The event aimed to introduce various construction practices in Hong Kong’s residential projects to oversea professionals in order to facilitate cultural exchanges and share project experiences. Some of our members took the opportunity to join this useful event in order to gain a better understanding of construction practices in Shanghai as well.

 

 

 

 

The day also happened to be the career talk day at PLK CKY. Sr Paul Wong was invited by PLK CKY to deliver three talks on the surveying profession to three groups of higher level students. The talks were followed by a Q&A session. I hope that these discussions inspired some students to consider quantity surveying as their future career.

 

Later that day, the QSD arranged a third secondary school visit to St. Paul’s College. This was the second time the QSD had visited the College to introduce the surveying profession. The visit was organized by some alumni who are currently in the QS profession. Our Council members, Sr Dr Sandy Tang, Sr KC Tang, Sr Donald Wong, and Sr KC Chang, joined the visit. About 300 students from Forms 4 and 5 attended the talk. Our Council members introduced the surveying profession and, in particular, the QS profession. By sharing their experiences as students at the College, the alumni inspired the students, who all showed great interest in the overall topic. The following message from the career master of the College, Mr Bill Ryan, is a good summary of the visit: “The best part about the talk was that each person spoke in a different style, and never for too long. Even our students, with ‘internet’ attention spans, were focused.”

 

The 8th ICEC World Congress was held from 23 to 27 June 2012 in Durban, South Africa. This Congress was organized by the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS). The theme of this Congress was “Quest for Quality: Professionalism in Practice”.

 

This year, three of our members attended the Congress. They were our Past President and Past Chairman, Sr TT Cheung; our Council Member, Sr Dr Mei-yung Leung; and I. The ICEC is an international organization comprising 48 members of the quantity surveying, cost engineering, and project management associations from 40 countries in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The ICEC World Congress is held biennially in these four Regions by rotation. This year, the Congress was held in Region 3 (Africa).

 

The ICEC Council Meeting was held on 24 June 2012 and lasted for a whole day. It covered reports from the Officers of the Council and members from the four Regions. I represented The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors by reporting on our major activities and latest developments since the last Congress held in Singapore. Sr TT Cheung presented a proposal for a new ICEC Governance Structure with the terms of reference of each Officer more clearly defined and the addition of four Deputy Region Directors to facilitate the Council’s operations. The proposal was approved. The Council also proposed setting up an International Standards Group Inventory of Best Practices and Standards for members’ reference. Sr TT Cheung was elected the Administrative Vice Chair, the third highest-ranking officer of the ICEC, for 2012 to 2014.

 

The Congress started this year’s gathering with an Opening Ceremony that featured traditional African dance and welcoming speeches from the ICEC Chairman, Mr Murtala Oladapo, and the President of the hosting Association ASAQS, Mr Qinisani Mbatha. There were seven Keynote Speakers and more than 50 Paper Presenters in this Congress. Our Council Member, Sr Dr Mei-yung Leung, was one of the Paper Presenters with her topic, “Relationship between Facility Management and Quality of the Life for

Elders in Care and Attention Homes”.

 

I took the opportunity to discuss the possibility of establishing future collaborations with representatives from the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (AACEI), Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), and ASAQS. We made some good initial progress and will continue our dialog in the coming months. Throughout the discussion, I was impressed by the skills possessed by the AACEI, such as construction cost auditing and risk analysis. Ghana is in a strategic location in West Africa and would like to become the centre of arbitration in Africa. ASAQS is the most advanced QS association in Africa. I believe that with continued Chinese investment in Africa, the early dialog with our African counterparts will benefit our members. The details of this cooperative effort shall be further discussed in a future QSD Council meeting.

 

I also took the opportunity to discuss with the President of the Quantity Surveying Division of the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV), Mr Teoh Wooi Sin, the possible collaboration between our Institutes in organizing a forum and study tour in Building Information Modeling (BIM) to Singapore later this year.

 

There have been many suggestions for opening a discussion forum for QSD members to discuss QS matters. I would like to inform everyone that such a forum has been set up in the new HKIS website. Please click on the weblink below, login with your HKIS username and password, and you will be able to view the comments in our discussion forum, as well as add your own. (Once you arrive at the HKIS’s main page, login as a member and click on the QSD divisional page->About QSD->Divisional Forum). We know that our members are educated professionals, so we would like them to exercise good judgment in their choices of language and content in the discussion threads. All job postings and advertisements will be removed. Please note that the QSD reserves the right to remove any post it deems inappropriate without notice.