In Session 2007/2008, in addition to the normal duties on qualification and membership matters, the major tasks the Panel have performed in the year included the following:

The Panel actively participated in the Task Force on Mutual Recognition Agreement between the HKIE and National Administration Board of Engineering Registration (全國註冊工程師管理委員會), including two working meetings in Beijing. Members of the Specialist Liaison Group of both parties will work more closely together to come up with a set of detailed requirements and conditions to achieve mutual recognition.

The Panel continued to work in close collaboration with the Building Services (BS) Division Committee in giving views and comments on a number of matters and consultation papers that are closely related to our profession, such as Registered Inspectors for Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme, Third Party Fire Safety Certification and Mandatory Implementation of the Building Energy Codes.

Finally, thanks to the great support from members and the industry, the Panel in collaboration with the BS Division Committee has raised sufficient funding to enable the large scale research project as reported last year to commence in September 2007: “Research Study on Hong Kong’s Building Services Profession – With a View to Enhancing Future Roles and Functions of Hong Kong’s Professional Building Services Engineers in Society”. The research team of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is about to complete the Stage 1 study report by now and will finish the entire study by end of 2008. We will keep members informed of the progress and the research finding in due course.