Summary Report of Presidential Meeting

The 2^nd CECAR

Tuesday, 17 April, 2001

The 2nd Civil Engineering Conference in the Asian Region has provided us a unique opportunity for Presidents of all the Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council members to meet and share civil engineering technologies and construction management processes that will advance our civil engineering practices. Yesterday all the Presidents and the members of the ACECC Executive Committee exchanged our views and opinions about various issues of infrastructures and about our profession, including global issues of environment and sustainable development, the rapidly emerging discipline of information technologies, and their implications to civil engineering practice, the unique characteristics of population growth in the Asian region and its great impact on the need for more cost effective infrastructure development, and the role of ACECC and future collaboration among the ACECC members. Here are some of the key points summarizing the Presidential Meeting.

We all recognized unique features in the Asian region, characterized by tremendous population growth with 60% of the world’s population. Population growth poses potential challenges for infrastructure development. In some areas there are desperate needs for life supporting infrastructures such as water supply and energy facilities, transportation and housing. Population growth also leads to intense population concentration, creating many big cities throughout the Asian region, which suffer from typical urban problems such as demands for housing; energy; environmental services such as waste disposal, clean air and water; improved transportation systems to reduce heavy traffic congestion; improved design and construction practices to better resist the effects of natural disasters, such as earthquake, flooding, tsunami, typhoon, landslide and volcanic activities. It is our responsibility to offer data, information, and processes that can serve as the technical basis to help solve these challenges.

Through improved technologies expanding population has greater opportunities to achieve prosperity in the future, but only if well planned infrastructures with stable investment, effective management and careful maintenance are provided. Thus we, all the Presidents, shared the view that the profession and the discipline of civil engineering must play a key role in determining whether Asia continues to suffer from the potential problems or Asia enjoys prosperity in the 21st century. The Presidents also agreed that infrastructural issues are global in nature. One geographic region is no longer independent of another.

We also recognized that many of the world’s largest infrastructures have been constructed in Asia. The tallest building, the largest shopping mall, the longest suspension bridge, the largest offshore reclamation, the largest Airport, the longest tunnel, the largest diameter shield tunnel, the fastest railway are all in Asia. Asia is a show case of high technologies in construction industry. These high technologies can only be available when secure funding and stable investment is provided. One of the biggest obstacles for infrastructure development in Asia and the world is securing sufficient funding. Thus we recognized that public and private sector partnership is of importance to encourage investment for infrastructure development in the Asian and world regions.

ACECC’s objectives are to

l     promote and advance the science and practice of civil engineering and related professions for sustainable development in the Asian region,

l     encourage communication between persons in charge of scientific and technical responsibility for any field of civil engineering,

l     improve, extend and enhance such activities as infrastructure construction and management, preservation of the precious environment and natural disaster prevention,

l     foster exchange of ideas among the member societies/institutions.

We confirmed that ACECC is an ideal vehicle to provide the data, information and processes that will improve civil engineering design, construction and management processes. We must make full use of the ACECC’s potential.

We agreed that the creation of ACECC has been effective in networking on an individual engineer basis in this region and also in exchanging information of new technologies. We considered that further expansion of ACECC membership will be beneficial in fostering mutual trust and collaboration by sharing limited resources to solve common challenges. We considered that a possible future role of ACECC is to work closely together with multi-lateral organizations such as the Ministers’ Forum on Infrastructure Development in the Asian-Pacific Region, and the Infrastructural Dialogue under APEC framework.

We agreed that ACECC should address its role in promoting sustainable development practice in civil engineering by securing as a leader in education and establishing its own policy framework for sustainable consumption.

We are all concerned about the future of the construction industry and our profession. The civil engineering profession, which we are proud of, is the profession of the creation of environment, the creation of culture, the creation of beauty, and the creation of a better quality of life for people at present and in the future. Human beings have a right to enjoy a better quality of life and civil engineering profession can provide it. We must make a great effort to disseminate clear messages to the next generation about the opportunities and challenges facing the civil engineering profession.

Finally, the Presidents agreed that the enthusiasm generated during the meeting must not be lost.  We agreed to create an operational plan to identify specific problems that need to be addressed, and approaches to develop solutions. The draft plan will be created by a subcommittee working under the direction of ACECC Secretary General. It will be circulated to all the Presidents for their comments by 30 June, 2001. A proposed Action Plan will be drafted for discussion at the fifth Executive Committee Meeting of ACECC in October, 2001.

2nd CECAR has been just a beginning toward our goal, but we are convinced that we have made an excellent start.