On 9 April 2019, the CIArb Egypt Branch organized a seminar on “Cost/Contracts Challenges in the Egyptian Construction Industry”. The speakers were Dr. Waleed El Nemr, Contracts Director, Hill International (Africa) Ltd. and the Branch Vice-Chairman, and Eng. Ayman El-Ghazzawi, Managing Director of ValueMetric Consultants (VMC), a company regulated by RICS.

The seminar addressed common challenges that face the construction industry in Egypt and the possible means to overcome them. The seminar focused on three specific repeated issues: missing BOQ items in remeasured contracts, validity of BOQ rates after the lapse of the duration of the original contract, especially in case of change of legislation affecting the cost of construction, and the processing of general requirements (preliminaries) after the original completion date.

The session discussed these challenges openly with industry practitioners and brainstorm solutions to minimize disputes of this nature. The session was attended by about 90 participants from Egypt and UK, including engineers, cost control engineers, contract engineers, contractors, consultants, developers quantity surveyors, and lawyers, who actively participated in an interactive discussion. The questions and answers session extended for more than three hours after the one-hour presentation.