- Al-Salman: Consulting Firms Portal helps us move forward confidently and responsibly
In a joint press release, Dr. Khaled Mahdi - Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development and Engineer Badr Al-Salman – President of the Federation of Kuwaiti Engineering Offices & Consultant Houses announced the convening of the 1st Consulting Services for Governmental Projects Forum. ENCON1 will be held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad AL-Sabah, the Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait. NoufEXPO will organize the event due to be held at Al-Baraka Ballroom of Crowne Plaza hotel from 20 to 22 March 2017.
Dr. Khaled Mahdi said that he is overwhelmed by the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad AL-Sabah. He added, “This patronage represents an invaluable support for the efforts exerted by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development and the Consultant Selection Committee to improve the outcome of consulting services. These, after all, are the basic foundation upon which development projects are built. All other phases that follow will be guided by the results of the consulting practice. Hence, the level of professionalism that governs the early consulting service phase will contribute to the success of projects’ execution and implementation within agreed specifications, time, and budget. ENCON1 convenes under the notion of “Towards Professional and Transparent Consulting Services” to confirm that these values should govern projects’ life cycle throughout. These no doubt, help achieving the objectives of Kuwait’s development plan and fulfilling the vision of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to transform Kuwait into a global financial and trade center.”
The Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the supreme Council for Planning and Development continued, “During ENCON1’s opening ceremony; the Consultant Selection Committee will launch the Consulting Firms Portal. This is a comprehensive web portal through which the values of transparency will be enforced throughout all phases of consulting projects. The portal is developed using open data principles and best practices to enforce equal opportunity and disciplined governance on one of the most critical government spending channels represented by development projects. It is Kuwait’s first open data implementation in a government entity to ensure full transparency throughout all its financial and administrative procedures.”
Commenting on the participation of the Federation of Kuwaiti Engineering Offices & Consultant Houses at ENCON1, Engineer Al-Salman said,”ENCON1s’ objectives and topics are of much relevance to us. Moreover, the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad AL-Sabah represents aa compelling invitation to us all to exert all efforts to improve delivery of consulting services. ENCON1 is a clear manifestation of the strong partnership between the public and private sectors. The private sector is invited to lead Kuwait’s economic development by encouraging competitiveness and improving efficiency benefiting from a genuine governmental support. All this should be accomplished while preserving Kuwait’s social values, achieving human resources development and balanced growth; developing mandatory fit infrastructure, and setting necessary legislation and regulations. ENCON1 will have its impact on improving professional qualifications, enforcing transparency values, and exhibiting best technical practices to lead Kuwait’s development plans.
Al-Salman commented on the launch of the Consulting Firms Portal by saying, “This portal is a long awaited ambition. It will assure Engineering Offices and Consulting Houses the full transparency of business processes throughout consulting services lifecycle. It will, also, encourage foreign companies to participate in Kuwait’s development projects. In this technology dominated world, we have to open up and engage regionally and globally. This, in turn, will help improve the professionalism of Kuwait’s engineering sector.”
Dr. Mahdi and Engineer Al-Salman outlined ENCON1’s program. They said that the event will feature a panel discussion regarding the documentary cycle of consulting projects. Many senior government leaderships, as well as, the UNDP representative in Kuwait will take part. The technical sessions will leave it to many specialized companies to present their views on the design, supervision, and project management practices of both the engineering and administrative aspects of projects. Finally, ENCON1 will feature two informative workshops that will discuss the documentary cycle of projects, Consulting Firms Portal, and variation orders of consulting contracts.
Dr. Mahdi and Engineer Al-Salman concluded their press release by inviting engineering offices and consulting firms to participate effectively at this first round of ENCON1.
They extended their invitation to consultants, engineering information systems analysts, project management specialists, and audit & governance specialists to benefit from this important event. They, as well, emphasized the excellent business development and networking opportunity that ENCON1’s accompanying exhibition will provide to sponsoring companies where they will be able to showcase their specialized services and technologies.
They invited all interested sponsors, organizations, and individuals to contact the organizing company, NoufEXPO on their phone number +965 22469921. They can also send their inquiries to [email protected], or visit ENCON1 website at www.noufexpo.com.kw/encon1. The Federation of Kuwaiti Engineering Offices & Consultant Houses may be also contacted on +965 22420482 or website www.oiace.com.