The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has signed a five-year agreement with the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) to implement nine FIDIC standard contracts across next five years.
FIDIC’s non-exclusive licence will be used as part of the CDB’s standard bidding documents, including the 2017 Second Edition FIDIC contracts and the 1999 editions, which, according to FIDIC, cover "a wide range of international construction and infrastructure work".
Nelson Ogunshakin, FIDIC’s chief executive, said: "The contracts will create more certainty in the market as by facilitating the use of FIDIC contacts on major projects the CDB is saying that they endorse the fair and balanced approach that these documents offer to parties on major construction contracts.
"The familiarity that the FIDIC contracts bring make it easier to get projects under way as many of the typical commercial risks are clearly addressed in the contracts and all the parties understand their obligations and responsibilities. Â
"The CDB’s endorsement should provide additional comfort to the financial, institutional and private equity investors operating in the global market to adopt the use of FIDIC standard procurement contracts as an effective tool to mitigate the risk associated with investable infrastructure asset class."
He added that the 2017 contract editions would shortly be translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
Doug Fraser, CDB’s head of procurement, said: "We are very pleased to sign this agreement with FIDIC. It provides our borrowing member countries with the ability to use internationally recognised and balanced forms of contract to further their project-specific and development objectives." Â
FIDIC says it plans to announce "further agreements with other multilateral development banks soon".
Image courtesy of the Caribbean Development Bank’s Twitter page
