Mendis to represent Sri Lanka at FIDIC 2013 Centenary Conference in Spain

Thursday, 12 September 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

President of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACESL) Malith Mendis will represent Sri Lanka at the FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) Centenary Conference in Barcelona, Spain from 13 to 18 September.

Mendis will attend the Presidents’ meeting and the Annual General Meeting of FIDIC, and will present Sri Lanka’s views on Engineering and Development. This year’s conference theme is ‘Quality of Life – Our Responsibility,’ the conference will focus in particular on urban environments where 75% of the challenges are manifested. Mendis said: “Society is looking to this industry to formulate a holistic approach on the role of cities in addressing sustainability challenges. Consulting engineers and architects, as key advisors in the delivery of sustainable infrastructure, have developed more sophisticated technologies to tackle innovative solutions to energy, water and transport usage in a more coordinated way. We believe the contents, recommendations and guidance of the above documents are extremely important to Sri Lanka in the context of the rapid implementation of projects, where we need to focus on long term sustainability to ensure that future generations will continue to benefit without any adverse effects of these projects.” A key feature of this year’s conference will be the launch of a new set of practical guides for use by all those involved in developing infrastructure. Building on previous experience, including partnerships with some international institutions (World Bank, UNEP, ISO, EU) a new Sustainability Pack, comprising three complementary publications, is to be published by FIDIC and EFCA (The European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations). Areound 1,200 delegates from 80 countries are expected to attend the conference, with a large number of delegates from Africa, as the opportunities for engineering consultancy in the African continent will be a focus point. Participants will have the opportunity to hear from, and discuss with, different experts in the field of business and engineering and will, in addition, contribute to the work of FIDIC through the different workshops and seminars being organised.