Exploring Construction Project Challenges and Strategies

The word count for this assignment is in the region of 3000 words, in addition to Appendices and labelled diagrams / sketches.

Questions Answer

THREE questions only

Corporate social responsibility has grown in importance over the past 10 years.

1.Discuss the underlying principles and practice of corporate social responsibility and its importance and impact on companies operating in the international construction market.

2.The University of Mauritius is seriously considering a tender received from an Indian contractor for the construction of a new science park on their campus. Tenders were received from Mauritian, Chinese, Indian, and South African contractors. The project budget is US$90 million. Local Mauritian companies produced the architectural and engineering design. The contractor from India was the lowest bidder, submitting a tender of US$78 million, the second lowest tenderer was at US$88 million. The client’s consultants are concerned that the price is too low.

The Indian contractor has no experience of working in Mauritius. Discuss the issues that should be investigated by the Client’s consultants before accepting the Indian contractor’s tender price.

3.The government of Abu Dhabi in the UAE has invited interested contractors to submit a tender for a new extension to an existing terminal in Abu Dhabi international airport. The project value is around US$300 million, with a project duration of 24 months. The project involves a public open tender.

Each contractor must submit a document outlining their policy and procedures on ethics, bribery and corruption as part of the tender submission. Assume you are working for a construction contractor operating from a country of your choice, describe what items must be included in the document to be submitted as part of the tender. State the country of choice in your answer.

4.Millennium Hotels Group with headquarters in Singapore, are planning to procure design and construction for a new US$100 million five star international standard hotel project in Jakarta, Indonesia. They are very keen to ensure that the construction of the project is as environmentally friendly as possible. This is Millennium Hotel’s first hotel in Indonesia. They are concerned that local Indonesian contractors are of insufficient size and experience to deliver such a complex and high quality project. A Singapore based architectural and engineering practice has undertaken the concept design, which is very futuristic. The intention is to novate the designer to a design and build contractor.

A state owned Chinese engineering and construction contractor with an annual turnover of US$20 billion has expressed interest to negotiate a fixed price design and build contract to undertake the work in joint venture with a local Indonesian contractor, who has an annual turnover of US$20 million.

Describe the issues to be considered when procuring the project from the perspective of Millennium Hotels Group appointing the Chinese and Indonesian joint venture team to deliver the project using a design and build agreement.

Local content is defined as benefit brought to a host nation to improve capacity building through: a) workforce development: employment and training local workforce, and b) supplier development: procuring supplies and services locally and developing local supplier capacity. Some international forms of contract used for the procurement of construction work have local content clauses requiring a minimum percentage of the project value to reflect local content.

Discuss the benefits and disadvantage of having local content clauses in a construction contract for a project in a developing country.

A privately owned construction company based in Cairo, Egypt has out grown its domestic market. It currently operates throughout Egypt with four regional offices. It has ambitions to expand and secure work across other countries in the Gulf region. It has a staff of 14,000 and operates in the infrastructure, buildings, and energy sectors. The annual turnover in 2019 was US$900 million, with a profit before tax of US$45 million.

Discuss the challenges it will face in expanding across the Gulf region.