DB Promotion

Dr. Toshihiko Omoto is very active in promotion of Dispute Board concept especially in the Asian region where the developing countries have a lot of infrastructure projects under the official loan of the World Bank (IBRD: International Bank of Reconstruction and Development), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and especially Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Under these loans, FIDIC Harmonised Edition which mandates the use of a DB is used. He conducted a DB tour in Asia for Dispute Resolution Boar Foundation (DRBF) to promote the awareness of the concept of DB. Also under JICA’s programme, he led the team for over five years for the promotion of the DB concept in this area. The activities included the followings:

1. DB tour to Asian Countries for DRBF

He conducted a tour to four countries for promotion of DB concept during 17 and 26 September 2006. He visited Singapore, Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia, Jakarta - Indonesia, Bangkok – Thailand. He had meetings with governmental bodies, civil engineers and consulting engineers societies, arbitration societies and so on. The DB concept was very new to most of the people he met and the meetings were evaluated as very informative.

2. DB promotion programme by JICA

Outline of the activities

Because FIDIC MDB Harmonised Edition is widely used for the infrastructure projects financed by the Multilateral Development Banks and JICA, it was expected that the project employing DB would be increasing. On the one hand, the DB concept was very new in the Asian region and therefore efforts to promote the DB concept were needed. On the other hand, there is few qualified DB Adjudicators in this region and therefore training and assessment of Adjudicators were required.

Dr. Toshihiko Omoto led the team made between Kyoto University and AJCE (Association of Japanese Consulting Engineers¹) for the DB promotion and Adjudicator training and assessment programme of JICA for 5 years from 2008 to 2013.

Activities

Seminars

Seminars were held to promote awareness of DB concept.

• Kyoto, Tokyo, Delhi and Manila : July – September 2008
• Hanoi, Colombo, Manila and Jakarta : January – February 2010

Meeting with JICA ODA Loan Implementation Agencies and Questionnaire Survey

Meetings were held with governmental officers of the borrowing countries to promote the awareness of DB concept.

• Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka : November 2009 – February 2010

Development of Training Kit for Promotion of DB Adjudicators²

This Kit is to be used for DB training for 5-day workshop.

JICA DB Training Workshops and Assessment Workshops³

Using the Training Kit, above described, 5-day Training Workshop was conducted. Later, 3-day Assessment Workshop was conducted.

• Tokyo: December 2010 (10 out of 19 candidates passed the Assessment, later listed on Japan National List of DB Adjudicators managed by AJCE)
• Manila: October – November 2012 (11 out of 19 candidates passed the Assessment, later supposed to be listed each country’s National List, i.e., Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia)

Development of JICA DB Manual⁴

This manual should be used by the officers of the borrowing countries of JICA loan and the consultants to the borrowers to learn not only how to manage the operation of a DB but also how to include the cost of DB in the loan. (JICA allows the cost of DB eligible for the loan.)

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^{1. AJCE is the Member Association of FIDIC representing Japan. back 2. http://libopac.jica.go.jp/images/report/P0000254171.html back 3. Programmes available on request. back 4. http://www.jica.go.jp/.../pdf/guide09.pdf back}