International engineering federation FIDIC (the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) has secured a major agreement with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) that will see the international funding organisation adopt the use of nine FIDIC standard contracts for the next five years. CDB is the leading source for development financing in the Caribbean and is committed to supporting inclusive and sustainable growth and good governance in the region.

Under the terms of the agreement, FIDIC has granted the CDB a non-exclusive licence to refer to nine major FIDIC contracts for projects they finance and the documents will be used as part of the bank’s standard bidding documents. The contracts include the latest 2017 Second Edition FIDIC contracts and 1999 editions, which cover a wide range of international construction and infrastructure work and the CDB’s move represents another major endorsement for FIDIC contracts from a major international funding organisation, following similar agreements signed with the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank earlier this year. FIDIC also expects to announce further agreements with other multilateral development banks soon.

FIDIC chief executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said: “This is another major development for FIDIC and we are delighted that the CDB has agreed to use our 2017 editions of the Rainbow suite of contracts, as well as the 1999 editions, as an accepted form of contract for use with their standard bidding documents. This will create more certainty in the market as by facilitating the use of FIDIC contacts on major projects the CDB is saying that they endorse the fair and balanced approach that these documents offer to parties on major construction contracts. The familiarity that the FIDIC contracts bring make it easier to get projects underway as many of the typical commercial risks are clearly addressed in the contracts and all the parties understand their obligations and responsibilities.

“The CDB’s endorsement should provide additional comfort to the financial, institutional and private equity investors operating in the global market to adopt the use of FIDIC standard procurement contracts as an effective tool to mitigate the risk associated with investable infrastructure asset class. Over the coming months, we will also be working with our member associations and strategic partners to ensure that the FIDIC 2017 contract editions are translated into five major languages - Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish - to aid effective use across all the other multilateral development banks’ operating countries.”

Commenting on the signing of the agreement, Doug Fraser, head of procurement at CDB, said: “We are very pleased to sign this agreement with FIDIC. It provides our borrowing member countries with the ability to use internationally recognised and balanced forms of contract to further their project-specific and development objectives.” 

FIDIC president Alain Bentéjac said: “We are delighted to see this move by the CDB, which represents further major international market buy-in for our FIDIC forms of contract and one that we hope will also influence the supply chain to adopt FIDIC contracts thereby creating even more certainty in the planning and delivery of major international construction and infrastructure projects. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with the CDB, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) over the coming years.”