Passion and commitment
WE continue to drive momentum behind adding value through collaboration and in the last couple of months, this has taken myself and the institution’s CEO, Simon Hamlyn around all the CICES regions as part of the regional committees annual general meetings.
It gave me an opportunity to witness, first-hand, the passion and commitment with which all CICES committee members share.
During these visits, I also had the chance to share the stage with our members in Anglia & Central, Eastern and Midlands, Ireland & Northern Ireland, South East and Yorkshire, as well as visiting members and supporters in Macau and Hing Kong.
The CEO covered my attendance in the Northwest and North Wales, Scotland, Southwest and South Wales regions, in addition to showing our appreciation of the work of our new regions, namely the Americas, Australia, UAE and Qatar.
It gave me an opportunity to witness, firsthand, the passion and commitment with which all CICES committee members share.
During these AGM sessions some of our committee chairs passed the baton and I would like to record my appreciation of the work of Derek Spalton, Ian Tookey, Isla Hillyear Hill and Mark Phillips, who have stepped down from the Eastern & Midlands, Ireland & Northern Ireland, Scotland and South West & South Wales committees, respectively.
We continue to thrive as an institution on the back of their passion and tireless service to our members in the regions. We also appreciate the dedication of all our current region chairs. I very much look forward to working with you to embed the concept of adding value in everything that we do as an institution.
During my visit to the Macau and Hong Kong regions, I was impressed by how the infrastructure industry in these regions applies its skills in addressing climate change, pressure on natural resources, increased urbanisation and smart and integrated transport modes to get economies moving and protecting oceans and marine life.
I saw CICES collaboration with education, governance and the industry to increase competence in the civil engineering surveying profession. Our members here are at the forefront of addressing these challenges using digital technologies in ways we have never seen before.
Our visit also coincided with the signing of a long-term agreement with the Macau Society of Cost Engineers and Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS). This agreement was an acknowledgement of our commitment to value adding relationships based on shared objectives. In his remarks, HKIS’s land surveying division chair, Sr Lau Chi Kwong emphasised the importance of close collaboration with CICES. He said: “The 21st century will present new and unknown challenges and opportunities. Our vision for continued excellence is to invest even more resources to enhance CPD and professional knowledge to meet the new challenges, maximising on new opportunities for the benefit of our two institutions.”
He added: “In this era of globalisation and inter-dependence, cooperative partnerships with other institutes of professional excellence around the world are not an option, but a necessity. Thus, the signing of this reciprocal agreement between our two institutions today symbolises a partnership which we believe will lead to many new joint professional initiatives that produce new synergies, and add professional value for both HKIS and CICES.”
Batsetswe Motsumi FCInstCES, President