ACEC Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Engineering Associations in Mexico and Canada

ACEC News

May 14, 2021

ACEC Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Engineering Associations in Mexico and Canada

In 2020, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) undertook a strategy to strengthen and formalize regional relationships among neighbouring countries. The FIDIC Regional Strategy calls for the creation of: FIDIC Middle East and FIDIC North America, and renaming existing regional bodies as FIDIC Africa, FIDIC Europe, FIDIC Asia-Pacific, FIDIC Latin America.

At the 2020 International Infrastructure Conference, the FIDIC Board approved the creation of the FIDIC North America region, and encouraged the three Member Associations—ACEC (United States), ACEC (Canada) and CNEC (Mexico)—to develop and execute the formation of regional partnering.

Following discussions with our association counterparts in Canada and Mexico, the three have signed a memorandum of understanding that we believe will move us closer to formalizing this great partnership, with goals to expand cross membership engagement, increase our public influence, and the awareness of the essential value of engineering and the work our member firms perform.

Some of the MOU’s objectives include:

• Identify mutual interests and promote networking opportunities and exchange of information on market conditions, to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between member firms.
• Identify, develop, share, and advocate for business best practices, including on Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), project delivery, contracting methodologies, and risk management.
• Provide platforms for exchanging published information and materials between the parties for use by the parties and/or their member firms, under request and cost terms similar to each party’s internal procedures. 
• Encourage participation at each other’s webinars, seminars, workshops, training, conferences, conventions, General Assembly Meetings, and related open activities (in person or virtual). Joint events should be considered.
• Participate, as needed and agreed on, in virtual or in-person meetings to assess progress and decide on specific mutual goals and activities to pursue going forward. Target quarterly meetings of principals to start.

The chair, which will be held by the Member Association CEOs, will rotate as follows: ACEC-US (2021), ACEC-CA (2022) and CNEC (2023). We look forward to this new partnership.

To view the signed MOU, click here.

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