CICA working groups gather multidisciplinary international experts from our construction companies to discuss specific topics and issues. CICA regularly invites guests to participate to CICA works and make presentations on a particular subject be it through informal exchanges or on the occasion of round tables organized either by CICA or a member of CICA. The contents of the working groups discussions are regularly shared within the CICA network.

• Long-term financing of infrastructures
• Public-Private Partnerships
• Procurement
• Well Prepared Project

On the occasion of the CICA Board-Council Meeting in Paris on the 17th of November 2014, it was decided to create a working group focusing on long-term financing of infrastructure. The interest for such a working group was confirmed at the CICA Board-Council meeting in Brasilia on the 27th of April 2015. It was also comforted by the interest generated by the roundtable on “Long-term financing market and its sources” organized during the International Meeting on Infrastructure and PPP hosted by CBIC, following the Board meeting in Brasilia.

Indeed, if it is unanimously recognized that the creation and the maintenance of public services infrastructures are essential to the establishment of a prosperous economy, the conditions to reach them are still very insufficiently satisfied. The absence of public capacity of financing is most of the time mentioned as the main reason to explain these deficiencies. The recourse to the techniques of Project Finance/PFI is presented as being the solution. However useful it is, this approach is totally insufficient to answer the immense world’s needs for infrastructures by 2030. They are estimated annually:

• Trade Infrastructures: investment financing thanks to users fee collection: USD 2, 6 trillion / year;
• Social Infrastructures: financing from States budget and from Public Aid: USD 1, 6 trillion / year.

The aim of this working group is to take into consideration the increasing recognition of the contribution of infrastructures to development, economic growth and employment.
The main goals of this CICA working group will be:

• To identify precisely the conditions required to trigger long term financing;
• To spread the solutions and the proposals of the construction industry;
• To undertake lobbying actions, at national and regional level, to assure the promotion of CICA and other professional organizations’ analysis and proposals.

The working group on PPP is managed by Fernando LAGO, Strategic Thinking Area Director at the Argentine Chamber of Construction.

The working group looks forward to have a greater participation of members from every region.

The group intends to:
• disseminate knowledge about the advantages and the minimum conditions to be met for a successful use of PPPs, to governments and enterprises;
• collect and disseminate new PPP regulations, covering inter alia improvement of institutional and legal framework to facilitate the use of the PPPs schemes;
• collect and disseminate “lessons learned”, around the world;
• deliver position papers to address the concerns and operational proposals of the construction sector in these regards.

The working group is particularly attentive to the following aspects:
• Capacity-Building;
• Lessons learned;
• PPP Tool-kit and links to MDBs and other Institutions resources;
• Social Economic Impact Measurement and in depth evaluation of a Project, in order to pay attention to the new « People First PPPs » UN policy and net positive/negative externality provided;
• Lobby with national and subnational governments, communities and stakeholders;
• Innovation.

CICA, together with the European International Contractors (EIC) and the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), is since 2005 a partner of the successive consultative working groups set up by the World Bank in the context of its Procurement Reform.

CICA regularly attends the International Advisory Group on Procurement (IAGP) meetings.
CICA is also willing to revive the biennial CICA mission the World Bank.

With respect to the World Bank Procurement Reform, the construction sector, represented by CICA, EIC and FIDIC, is particularly attentive to the following aspects:

• Capacity-Building;
• Institutional Strengthening;
• Value for Money decision-making;
• Sustainable Procurement;
• International Competitive Bidding;
• Integrity and fight against corruption;
• Multilateral Development Banks’ fiduciary mission and supervision;
• Prevention and resolution of disputes.

CICA organizes meetings and roundtables to discuss the Procurement procedures of the World Bank and participates to external meetings on this topic. Together with the EIC and in cooperation with FIDIC, position papers are written to address the concerns of the construction sector in this regard.

CICA also participates in the consultation groups set up by other Multilateral Development Banks such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)… for their Procurement Reform and other procedures.

This working group is managed by Michel DEMARRE, SEFI Director General, Vice-president of the Europe – International Commission of the French Federation of Public Works (FNTP), European International Contractors (EIC) Past President.

The absence of a pipeline of infrastructure projects in the developing and emerging countries and the too many projects that fail are due to the lack of preparation of the projects.

In order to remedy this situation, CICA has been working on the good preparation of the projects since 2004 and proposes to implement the concept of “Well Prepared Project” that was introduced in November 2009 at the World Bank’s Heads of Procurement meeting in Thessaloniki.

The concept of Well Prepared Project was then successfully reintroduced in the recommendations of the G20 in Cannes in 2011.

The Well Prepared Project concept clearly establishes the requirements for a successful project in terms of quality of the works as well as respect of budgets and schedules.

The objective of the Well Prepared Project working group would be to provide a set of recommendations or guidelines for countries and institutions (notably the Multilateral Development Banks and Development Finance Institutions) involved in infrastructure investment in the developing and emerging world. These recommendations will aim to improve the quality of preparation and implementation of projects.

The first application of the concept of Well Prepared Project in the context of this CICA working group is the road sector. CICA is currently engaged in discussions and works jointly with the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC).