Chairman's Message

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to serve the Civil Division, which has the greatest number of members among other Divisions/Committees of the Institution. Engineering is a wealth-creation discipline and professionals of which must work hand in hand with business sector for wealth harvesting, humanity for wealth distribution and enjoyment, and medical industry in enhancing the quality of life. In the past, there was only civil and military engineering. Many engineering disciplines nowadays are developed from civil engineering. In fact, civil engineering and its related professions still occupy the largest proportion of GDP in Hong Kong. In the 2007-08 Policy Address, the Chief Executive listed ten Major Infrastructure Projects for priority attention in the coming five years, which are all civil engineering projects. We, as engineers, must therefore take part in and be influential to this area.

The ten Major Infrastructure Projects in the 2007-08 Policy address of the Chief Executive includes Transport Infrastructure of the South Island Line, the Sha Tin-Central Link, the Tuen Mun Western Bypass and Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link; the Cross-boundary Infrastructure of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Airport Co-operation, the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Joint Development of the Lok Ma Chau Loop; and the New Urban Development of West Kowloon Cultural District, of Kai Tak Development Plan and of the New Development Areas. All these projects will keep us civil engineers busy for quite some time.

The Division will endeavor to support the Government to provide technical seminars, site visits and continuing professional development (CPD) for practicing engineers to enhance their knowledge and skills. We shall work closely with universities to nurture young professionals and enhance the status of engineers in the community. For these purposes, we are actively organising the Innovation Festival - Science Park to be held in October 2008 and the Science in the Public Service - Victoria Park Fun Fair in November 2008.

To support the activities for more than eight thousand members, we have set up sub-committees of CPD, technical meetings, mainland contact series, site visits, website, publicity, volunteer services, social events, winter camp, awards and finance. Exchange of knowledge should not be confined. Therefore, we plan to organise international conferences on the Impact of Climate Change to Engineers in January 2009 and the Impact of Renewable Energy in April 2009.

Of course, we should extend our borders to electrical engineering, medicine, law, science, arts, business, humanities etc.

Cooperation among members and being eclectic is the way of success. I treasure the support and contribution from every member and Committee member, which enable me to lead our Division to a new height.

Ir Prof Andrew Y T LEUNG
Chairman, Civil Division
Session 2008/2009