News and Announcements
We had an exceptional evening on 9 November at the IoD, when the Awards for 2011 were presented, followed by an amusing but also deeply thoughtful speech from the Rt Hon Michael Portillo.
Nigel Peters was in Haiti (and Dominican Republic) last week to look at the reconstruction and development opportunities following the earthquake in 2010. Click to see the report
The Supreme Council for Energy, Dubai visited British Expertise last week as part of a fact-finding mission to Britain. Click to see the press release.
There were a large number of outstanding entries for the British Expertise International Awards 2011 - very difficult for the judges to select the winning entries. See their final shortlist here.
The Anti-Corruption Forum is an alliance of UK business associations, professional institutions, civil society organisations and companies with interests in the domestic and international infrastructure, construction and engineering sectors some of whom are also members of British Expertise. The Forum's objective is to help create a business environment that is free from corruption.
The Forum has been very much involved in the efforts to reform the law on bribery in recent years that have led to the Bribery Act 2010 and believes that while no law is perfect, the Act will do a great deal to bring the UK into line with international best practice, and will further encourage British companies to avoid corrupt business practices.
The UK Ministry of justice issued formal guidance in March 2011; but as the formal guidance must apply to companies in all sectors, it is very general. The Forum has prepared a set of guidance specifically for the infrastructure sector, including case studies related to specific business situations. It is intended to be of direct and practical help to companies involved in the design and construction of infrastructure projects internationally. The Anti-Corruption Forum Guidance for the Infrastructure Sector abridged version can be accessed here. Details on how to obtain a full copy of the document can be found on page 6 of this pdf file.
For information on how to join the UK ACF please email Tracey Smith.
Steve Taylor, Crown Agents' executive director of Business Development, has been appointed our new Chairman, taking over from David Howell of dmh Associates this month.
We would like to thank David for his excellent stewardship during the last year and for guiding us through the process of developing a new strategy to meet the demands of the challenging economic environment, both at home and overseas.
Steve Taylor has served on the Board of British Expertise for the past two years and we are delighted to have him as Chairman. His broad range of experience of working internationally will help us to implement our new strategy and continue to grow the organisation.
British Expertise was at the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) World Transport Showcase in London on 19 May. With transport an increasingly key sector as developing markets focus on infrastructure, this event launched three major UKTI scoping reports; Rail in Turkey, Airports in Vietnam and Ports in Brazil. The current British Expertise Chairman David Howell wrote the Brazil report.
British Expertise welcomes a letter received recently from Patrick Crawford, Chief Executive of ECGD, about the extension to ECGD products as part of the Government’s White Paper on Trade. /more