FIDIC

The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (commonly known as FIDIC, acronym for its French name Fédération Internationale Des Ingénieurs-Conseils) is an international standards organization for the consulting engineering & construction best known for the FIDIC family of contract templates. The fact that the organisation has a French title bears testimony to its foundation in 1913 by three countries each wholly or partly francophone. The founding member countries of the FIDIC were Belgium, France and Switzerland.

Located at the World Trade Center in Geneva, Switzerland, FIDIC aims to represent globally the consulting engineering field by promoting the interests of firms/engineers supplying technology-based intellectual services for the built and natural environment. Run mostly by volunteers, FIDIC is well known in the consulting engineering field for its work in defining Conditions of Contract for the Construction industry worldwide.

Companies and organizations belonging to FIDIC national member associations are encouraged to announce themselves as FIDIC members and use the FIDIC logo. The use of the logo is strictly controlled, and all FIDIC products and services are protected by the FIDIC trademark.

There were 59 participants at an inaugural meeting during the World Exhibition in Ghent, Belgium, in July 1913, to discuss the possibility of forming a global federation of consulting engineers. Of the participants, 19 were official delegates from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA, with the remainder coming from Austria/Hungary, Canada, Russia and the UK. The meeting was a success in that it led to FIDIC's formal constitution on 22 July 1913. Some countries, however, only maintained provisional links during the first few years, so the real founders of FIDIC were Belgium, France and Switzerland. FIDIC led a difficult life until the late 1940s with a changing number of members, and all members based in Europe. In 1959 they were joined by Australia, Canada, South Africa and USA to make FIDIC truly international. The first member associations from the developing world joined in 1965 (Central Africa, now Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and in 1967 (Colombia).

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