199707 – Ness – The Overseas Work Experience: The Pros, The Cons & The Necessity of Winning International Projects

Connell Wagner has been involved in the provision of engineering expertise to the international marketplace for in excess of 15 years. The range of services provided in this period has encompassed the majority of disciplines that the company supports within our Australian base operations including:-
– Ports and Marine
– Industrial Bulk Handling Facilities
– Airports
– Water & Waste Water Treatment
– Building Services
– Bridges & Tunnelling
– Railways – Track & Signalling.

While some of the projects with which we have been involved have required a continuous overseas presence, others have been more sporadic in their needs. For some projects our role can be relatively minor, more often it requires a major investment in time and people in older to accomplish the stated objectives. Some of the countries in which we have operated have included:-
– Thailand
– Indonesia
– Hong Kong
– China
– Philippines
– Singapore
– New Zealand
– Papua New Guinea
– United States of America
– United Kingdom
– Japan
– Abu Dhabi
– Taiwan

Traditionally the large scale, high profile off-shore projects that attract international companies have been centred around improving infrastructure within the major cities of the country concerned. Increasingly however, particularly as the “developed” status is reached, countries are able to draw on their own home grown expertise for these types of pro-jects and it has become apparent that it is the more specialised area’s of engineering, often requiring works in relatively remote areas, where the opportunities exist today.

By their very nature these off-shore projects tend to cause all sorts of problems for the organisation and staff involved simply because of the remoteness between site and head office. When these factors are combined with such issues as traditional and cultural differences, housing and medical arrangements, local staff and industrial relations, third party audits, and everybody’s favourite – taxation liabilities, one can be forgiven for wondering if it’s all worth the bother.
The purpose of this paper is to share some of Connell Wagner’s, and the author’s, experiences of the ups and downs experienced in the pursuit, performance and completion of international projects and also to stress the importance of international work to our industry given the rather uncontrolled nature of contracted work within the Australian rail industry at present.

In view of Australia’s geographic proximity and existing business links with the South East Asian region this paper mainly relates to aspects of working within ASEAN nations as they have provided our largest exposure, and thereby experience, of the international scene to date.