Ghana to host ICEC conference

Ghana is to host a four-day International Cost Engineering Council (ICEC) conference, scheduled for July 7-10.

Mr Kwadwo Osei-Asante, Chairman of the Planning Committee told a news conference on Monday that about 100 delegates worldwide would attend.

The meeting, which is on the theme: "Contemporary Issues in Cost Management and Quantity Surveying", is a three in one facilitating conference, organised by the Ghana Institution of Surveyor's Quantity Surveying Division.

It would cover the ICEC Region Three (Africa) meeting, African Association of Quantity Surveying Council meeting and the Ghana Institution of Surveyors Annual seminar for 2003.

Mr Osei-Asante said the conference would be an opportunity for Ghana not only to share her professional experiences, but also to initiate capacity building and training in specialist areas such as Build-Operate Transfer (BOT) projects and access to construction consultancy jobs, as well as information networks.

He said, "as professionals we view the present inadequate provision and inefficient physical infrastructure in our settlements as major constraints to the nation's socio-economic development".

Mr Osei-Asante said Ghana needed a procurement bill to serve as a guide to surveyors and to phase out quacks in the profession.

He said Ghana, which is the current Vice-President of the African Association of Quantity Surveyors (AAQS), would ensure that value addition, at the end of the conference, led to an enhanced constructed facility through knowledge-based resource optimisation.