CABE CEO's Management Trip to APAC Region November 2024

To keep the momentum brought by the President’s visit in April 2024, CEO Richard Harral conducted his third visit to Hong Kong from 17-23 November 2024 to proactively engage with the local counterparts, such as the Buildings Department - HKSAR Government, The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) and the Property Management Services Authority. During his visit he highlighted the Association’s CEng and CEnv licences, membership demographics and expertise, and discussed professional development and CPD.

Richard continued to engage with policymakers to support positive change in the built environment and construction industries.  He gave an hour and a half talk on 21 November to the Buildings Department (BD) on Grenfell Tower to share the UK’s experience, followed by an hour Q&A session with BD’s senior management.

His talk was well attended by 70 on-site participants whose feedback was overwhelmingly positive. It is a proven record that CABE is committed to continuing these valuable sharing opportunities to equip our built-environment professionals with cutting-edge tools to enhance their practice.

During his visit, the CABE CEO hosted a briefing session to guide prospective applicants to register for CABE Membership, through which they can attain additional qualifications such as CEng and CEnv for further aspiration. The briefing session was an opportunity to engage a younger generation. Moreover, he gave a talk to a group of current CABE Members in Hong Kong who are interested in serving the Association by volunteering as MCABE Panel Assessors.

We need to encourage more current members to get involved in helping us grow CABE membership by assessing applicants. Richard also provided a separate training session to six CABE Members who also attained CEng qualifications to equip them to be the CEng assessors for candidates coming from APAC region.

We strengthened our ties with the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) to explore the mutual recognition under the Washington Accord, which could facilitate CABE Members using CEng registration to attain recognition by HKIE.

In addition, CABE CEO and staff visited the Property Management Services Authority (PMSA) and expressed our interest in becoming a “recognised professional body” (RPB). We were given a detailed introduction and briefing session by PMSA on the morning of 22 November and will work with them closely over coming months to see how we can collaborate to improve recognition of CABE Members in Hong Kong.

CABE CEO also signed an MOU with the School of Professional Education and Executive Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (SPEED), on 20 November 2024, which allows for the academic partnership renewal with CABE and ensures that SPEED students are eligible for CABE Student Membership.

Our relations with The Hong Kong Institute of Construction (HKICM) and The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) were also reinforced. Both CABE CEO and HK Chair Kyran Sze attended their annual dinner held on 18 November and 19 November respectively to support them and foster better communication.

Looking ahead, the CABE Hong Kong Chapter is fully supported by CEO and HQ colleagues and will assist in new management initiatives in 2025 to help CABE members further excel in their professional roles.