Building Economists Define New Profession In Poland
Over 120 professionals serving the Polish construction sector attended an international conference titled "Construction In Poland, The Risks and Rewards", at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Warsaw last month. They listened to experts from the UK and Poland talk about the phenomenal growth of the construction sector in Poland and the problems associated with its outdated practices and structures. The debate focused on the question of how to make the construction industry in Poland more efficient and what professionals are needed?
The conference hosted jointly by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and The Polish Association of Real Estate Counsellors (PAREC) was sponsored and organised by Polish Properties.
Andrzej Kalus, PAREC President, set the scene by describing the need to organise the profession of "building economists" in Poland and the need to educate and train more professionals in line with market need. He announced plans by PAREC to establish a postgraduate course in Building Economy and Project Management later in the year.
David Tuffin, RICS President Elect followed with a presentation on the role and influence of the RICS on the global construction industry in terms of supplying highly educated, trained and ethically motivated professionals to service that industry. Michael Byng, Chairman RICS Construction Faculty echoed his comments. Both, encouraged Polish quantity surveyors, building economists and project managers to join the growing ranks of the RICS, which now claims a membership of 120 000 property and construction professionals worldwide including 100 in Poland.
Milan Khatri, Chief Economist, RICS presented an overview of the construction and real estate industry across Europe and the continuing positive indicators for the future, albeit with some warnings about the dangers posed by growing interest rates.
From Poland, eminent speakers included Henryk Liszka, CEO Hochteif Polska, Barbara Blida, Director of JW Construction, Marek Bryx, Director UN Habitat, Zdzislawa Ledzion Trojanowska. Vice President,PAREC, Antoni Chalupka, Chairman of Probuild and Piotr Turchonski, Head of Project Management, Hochtief Project Development.
Representatives of the major international quantity surveying and project management firms were also prominent on the discussion panels. They included Marcin Klammer, Managing Director, EC Harris, Tadeusz Jachowicz, Managing Director Gleeds and Paul Cullen and Adam Grabski of Euromost.
A lawyer's perspective of the Polish construction sector and an overview of the legal pitfalls of construction contracts was provided by Tomasz Stasiak of Clifford Chance and Polish academia was represented by Andrzej Borowicz of Lodz University and Michal Gluszak of Cracow University of Economics.
Conference moderator, Chris Grzesik, Chairman of RICS Europe and Managing Director of Polish Properties summed up the conference as follows: "The last fifteen years has seen a development boom in Poland. In this connection much has been said about the real estate market and its key players. Less attention has been given to the construction side, the processes involved and to the professionals such as building economists, quantity surveyors and project managers, who have played a key role in the development process. This conference succeeded in redressing the balance and turned much needed attention on current issues in the Polish construction sector".