World Economic Forum ’ s 3 top tips
PROJECT MANAGEMENT to be further squeezed , and in the UK , 43 % more surveyors anticipate margins to fall than rise .
Indeed , across multiple global markets , construction costs are likely to rise faster than tender prices . In Asia Pacific , tender prices for building and civil engineering projects are forecast to rise 1.2 % and 2.6 % respectively ; total construction costs are forecast to rise 2.3 %. In the Middle East and Africa , building tender prices are predicted to rise 1.7 %, with construction costs rising by 2.4 %.
Overall , the outlook for construction and infrastructure has deteriorated sharply . In the US , expectations for the next twelve months were downgraded across all categories compared to Q4 , and for non-infrastructure workloads , they have turned completely flat ( compared to a reading of + 63 % in Q4 ). In the UK , workload expectations dropped to -13 % in Q1 from a net balance of + 50 % in Q4 . An increasingly downbeat outlook appears to be the norm for much of the Middle East and some parts of Africa too .
Sean Ellison , Senior Economist , RICS , said the performance of the sector has been entirely dominated by the impact of COVID- 19 . Firms have been placed under increasing financial stress as social measures to tackle the virus became stricter , sites have closed , and the seismic shock to the global economy has become starker .
“ Despite a huge array of government fiscal interventions , the recovery process is likely to prove protracted , and it certainly won ’ t be uniform ,” he says . “ Construction sites may be starting to re-open in some countries , but this will be on a country-bycountry basis , and we do not yet know the full impact on demand . Nonetheless , it is clear that professionals expect governments to boost infrastructure spending on the road
World Economic Forum ’ s 3 top tips
1 . Organizational agility was once desirable but is now central to business survival
2 . Digitalization should not be seen as an acceptable solution to a problem , but rather grounds to change the business model creatively for the better
3 . Cooperation with previously unlikely partners proffers a more effective means to generate collective new gain .
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