Following another challenging year for the industry, Infrastructure Intelligence editor Andy Walker offers some seasonal greetings to all our readers. 

As 2021 draws to a close, I’d like to thank all our readers, partners, sponsors and advertisers for their support over the past 12 months and to wish everyone season’s greetings and a happy New Year in 2022. 

In one way or another, 2021, like the year before, has been dominated by the Covid pandemic. As we can all see from the latest news headlines, Covid is still with us and we are not out of the woods yet. Despite the challenges though, the construction and infrastructure sector continue to work hard on projects in the UK and internationally that will put the UK and global economy in a much better position to make progress towards a sustainable economic recovery in 2022. 

In the ever-more connected global world that we all inhabit, it should be no surprise to see the emergence of the Omicron variant which is causing yet another round of restrictions internationally. It is right that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are calling for a stepping up of the global vaccination effort. It is a sobering statistic that when you look at the whole of the African continent, almost a year after Covid-19 vaccines became widely available, more than 80% of Africa’s population have not seen a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Such inequality of vaccine coverage is unacceptable. The situation needs to change if the world is to recover from the Covid pandemic. Global leaders must redouble their efforts to ensure that all parts of the world are vaccinated because, as we know, no one is safe unless everyone is safe. The developed world should be making the vaccines freely available to all countries, especially those in the most need. The global economy needs all countries to have unfettered access to the vaccine in order to get all economies moving forward.

The UN children’s charity UNICEF is working hard to close the vaccination gap and helping to deliver vaccines wherever they are needed. Global infrastructure can play its part too by making a donation to their Vaccinaid appeal this Christmas.

In 2022, we have some exciting plans in store for Infrastructure Intelligence that will enable us to promote and amplify the voice of construction and infrastructure even more over the next 12 months. Keep an eye on our website in January for details of what we have planned and how you can get involved. You can also check out some of our planned feature coverage for our digital magazine and also the website. As always, we’d love to hear from you so don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have something to contribute.

In the meantime, I hope that all our readers will take the opportunity to relax and recharge the batteries over the holiday season. More than ever, we all need to look after our wellbeing so please make sure that you take the time to do just that.

Finally, I just wanted to say a big thank you again to our readers, advertisers, online events speakers and attendees and to everyone who has worked with us in 2021. Your support is very much appreciated. Here’s hoping that 2022 proves to be a more certain year and one that we can all look forward to with optimism and hope.

After the final edition of the year this Thursday, our enews will return on Thursday 6 January 2022. In the meantime, take care, stay safe and we look forward to continue being the voice of construction and infrastructure next year!

Should you wish, you can make a donation to UNICEF’s Vaccinaid appeal at www.vaccinaid.org.