“I can’t believe there is no A-Level syllabus for Chinese language in the UK,” says Shanghai-based consultant Geoff Mills, after checking on behalf of his teenage daughter who was keen to learn. It’s not choice for choice’s sake that he wanted, either. Economically, he’s pretty sure China will outstrip Britain in the not-too-distant future, and understanding Chinese could come in handy.

As if to prove Mills’s point, last month we saw the Prime Minister ringing up a Chinese state-owned firm to ask them - pretty please - not to walk away just yet from the deal for the last British-owned volume carmaker.

China’s economic resurgence is awe-inspiring. After more than a century enduring conquest, humiliation, famine, unrest and civil war, the kingdom that always considered itself at the centre of the world now appears to be heading in that very direction.

China may also play a big part in the long-term future of the CIOB. While there are fewer than 3000 members there now (most in the former British colony of Hong Kong), the potential is enormous. Consider this: over two days in March, 285,000 construction managers in China sat an exam to qualify for the state’s new Registered Constructor designation. Around 15% of them are expected to pass. And the Chinese government is considering a mutual recognition deal that could ease the way for Registered Constructors, First Class into corporate CIOB membership. Faced with numbers like this, it isn’t a great leap to imagine, in a decade or two, CIOB coming to stand for Chinese Institute of Building.

The Chinese value membership because it represents an international qualification. Clearly, some international qualifications are more international than others. The CIOB is not big in the Americas, Continental Europe and a certain local authority in Scotland (see letters, page 6). But Chinese construction management is coming of age in its new free-market environment. Soon it will export its experts on a grander scale. And then, Chinese members - currently among the best practitioners in their country - will wave the CIOB banner on a global stage.

Source

Construction Manager