PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
ENGINEERING
PRACTICE
T
he recent amendments to the Registration
of Engineers Act call for higher requirements
for local practising engineers who may be
facing competition from foreign firms following
liberalisation. Taking a positive view in looking
beyond our shores, the market is suddenly
expanding many fold. However, the demand for
standards and competency from our practising
engineers will be correspondingly high.
Engineering service is one among the services
liberalised under the ASEAN Economic Community.
It is also among the programmes listed under the
“Five-year programme for Economy and Trade Cooperation 2013-2017 between the Government of
Malaysia and China”. With more bilateral or multilateral trade in service agreements in sight, more
liberalisation of trade in services involving the
engineering sector may be expected.
The recently concluded BOAO Forum for the
Asia Annual Conference 2015 focused among
its agenda on the Overland Development Belt
and Maritime Silk Road initiatives and the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The
introduction of these new sources of fund will
translate into massive infrastructure development
programmes stretching across Asia, Europe and
Africa involving construction or upgrading of roads,
ports, railways, telecommunication and other
engineering facilities. These matters are also
among the declarations from the APEC Leaders
2014 that called for strengthening connectivity
in the Asia-Pacific region as well as facilitating
the Global Value Supply Chain. The opportunities
available to the engineering fraternity are thus
huge and lucrative as the new world order.
However, bigger market size means bigger pool
of international competitors. It is up to our local
players to brand themselves with a higher level
of professional engineering practice to share that
piece of the pie or be left irrelevant.
To keep our engineers abreast of the
development around our region, the Publication
Committee introduced a new section called
International Forum in this issue. Salient points
of important forums that have an impact on the
regional economy will be published as engineers
have to take cognizance of the new trade order to
realize new opportunities beyond our shores.
Dato’ Ir. Hj. Annies bin Md Ariff
President, BEM
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