President Peter Hansford had a busy start to the new year with his first overseas visit planned for Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
I’m reminded that ICE operates in more than 150 countries around the world. We really are a UK organisation with global engagement. It’s therefore important that, as President, I should visit some of our members overseas.
In January, I had the great priviledge of visiting ICE members in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Kuala Lumpur, I met most of our Country Representatives for the Asia Pacific Region at our biennial regional convention – from the Indian sub-continent, East Asia and Australasia. During my visit, I was impressed by the incredible scale of infrastructure development taking place in the region. This is particularly the case in China – in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong SAR and many other cities.
More than 10% of ICE members live and work in the Asia Pacific Region, with more than half of these in Hong Kong alone. And this is our fastest growing region around the world. In Hong Kong I had the great pleasure of presenting certificates to 150 new Members and 7 new Fellows at a wonderful Certificate Presentation Ceremony and Reception at the Hong Kong Club in the presence of local members and guests. ICE has an important role to play in that part of the world.
Certificate Presentation Ceremony and Reception at the Hong Kong Club
I also visited universities in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai and presented my message about Delivering Value. I signed a plaque to commemorate my visit to the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus and an agreement of co-operation with the training centre of Jiaotong University in Shanghai. It’s great to see the enthusiasm of the students and their interest in ICE – they even have ICE T-shirts!
University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus
This trip – the first of my overseas visits – has given me a good and well-balanced perspective of ICE viewed from afar.
And things have been happening back at home. The Infrastructure UK Cost Review report was published on 21 December and launched formally at One Great George Street on 2 February, in front of 140 senior players across industry and government. I am really pleased that ICE has been able to play such an important role in this study. We also issued our State of the Nation: Waste and Resource Management in January, and Senior Vice President Richard Coackley launched this while I was away in Asia. These initiatives are central to our mission to Deliver Value.
I now start my season of visiting the English and Welsh regions and meeting members across the UK.
Peter Hansford is the Institution of Civil Engineer's 146th President, representating and promoting the Institution and the civil engineering profession in the UK and around the world.