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Issue No. 14 - December/January 2004
Building Central Africa
Africa was the land of opportunity in the 19th century, but today is unfortunately known as a collection of populous countries, struggling to find their economic feet.
A beckoning opportunity? Not at first glance, but an Adelaide—based Tanzanian expatriate is gathering support for an idea that is bent on creating one that will capitalise on the already good reputation Australians enjoy in Africa, particularly East and Central Africa.
An international conference on the building and construction industry with the theme “Towards a Unified Global Building and Construction Industry" is being planned for mid—2004. Known as ICBC Dar 04 after the meeting place, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, the conference will gather local African building professionals, academics, institutions and firms who want a bigger slice of the development support flowing into their countries.
Africa is generally heavily dependent on international aid to fuel its development, but the strict conditions of aid, and the complexities of western due diligence, make it very difficult for underskilled, undercapitalised and under—resourced African companies to take part. Consequently, they are eager to form partnerships with experienced outsiders they can trust. “There is a big demand to enhance capacity building for local companies to enable them to participate actively and compete effectively in contract procurement and project delivery processes," says conference organiser, Sossy Msomi, a Quantity Surveyor who is also a Contract Manager for the Adelaide firm, Ceiling and Wall Contractors.
Sossy came to Adelaide in the 1990s, after attending a conference in London where other delegates spoke highly of South Australia. Visiting a relative here, he found the place as good as advertised and migrated here. His experience in the construction and building industry reinforces his thinking that Australian companies would do well in Africa.
The main purpo...
