Action Asia Business Leaders Seminar One

Richard Aitken, Group Chief Executive of Beca, was the inaugural speaker at the Asia:NZ Business Leaders Seminar Series in Auckland on 16 September 2008. He talked about Beca’s involvement in engineering projects in the Asian region since the early 1970s. Beca's work in Asia mainly focuses on the building sector, but they also do project management and industrial work.

The industrial work started with Lion Nathan's breweries in China, for which they did the research, design, contract administration and project supervision. As with so many engineering projects in Asia, the scale of the projects undertaken by Beca has been impressive.

Richard covered some of the difficulties and highlights of working in Asian markets, and described how they manage the business both locally and from the New Zealand head office. Over time the business has evolved into a professional services company. Initially concentrating on the engineering side of projects in Asia, Beca now acts as project manager on some very large building projects.

One example of a large-scale construction project they are currently involved in is the Marina Bay Sands project in Singapore where Beca has stationed eight people in senior project management positions. Marina Bay Sands is a massive undertaking and the architect's concept is spectacular. Among other intriguing elements, the site includes a roof-garden atop three large office towers with very few straight lines.

Beca has bases in Indonesia, Singapore, China, Myanmar, and some project work in Vietnam. The local offices, such as the one in Myanmar, operate as independent management centres and also provide services like computer assisted drawing (CAD) to the regional office in Singapore.

What has contributed to the overall success of the Myanmar operation is that the employees are well paid by local standards and Beca has been supportive of its people in hard times. In response to the damage caused by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, Beca came to the aid of its staff by replacing the roofing of their housing and carrying out other essential repairs.

Examples of Beca’s projects in the Asian region can be seen in this presentation (PDF, 1.26MB).

The Asia New Zealand Foundation partnered with Bell Gully in presenting Richard Aitken.

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Questions?

Contact James Penn, Director Business

Telephone (09) 368 1435 or Email