The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) NZ Procurement Symposium was held in Wellington on November 27 and was attended by Rob Lorden. He found the advice from Bernard Cuttance (NZTA) on the importance of reviewing your long term procurement in terms of strategy, contract price adjustment and standard documents useful.

Caleb Johnstone, from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) outlined the 5 Principles in the Government’s new procurement policy established in October this year: Plan and manage for great results, be fair to all suppliers, get the right supplier, get the best deal for everyone and play by the rules. The objectives of the policy are to create an environment for NZ businesses to succeed, increase performance, add value, maximise results, and unlock cost savings.

There were also presentations of specific procurement situations, such as Dukessa Blackburn-Huettner’s example of Stormwater Operations & Maintenance Contract Procurement and the Alliance Maintenance Contracts currently in place in the Southland District, presented by Ian Marshall. Peter Higgs of the Gisborne District Council gave a local government perspective on changes in procurement, and Peter Cunningham of the MBIE looked at delivering the Canterbury rebuild.

In June this year, Martin Leak, Philippa Walker and Steve Griffith attended the 20^th Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Congress, in Tokyo, and were impressed by the progress they saw in electrified vehicles and information and communication technologies (ICT).

Starting with safety and traffic management as basic concerns, ITS is reaching out to three new domains: energy management, personalized mobility services navigated by big data, and resilient transport systems.

Regardless of mode of transport, all societies need to look at introducing greater numbers of lower-emission forms of mobility. There are more and more electrified vehicles being launched onto the market (including EV, HEV, pHEV and FCV) and these require closer information exchange via Information Communication Technology (ICT) between vehicles and infrastructure.

This new ICT need brings various new services and businesses into reality as it requires big data deployment in the form of collecting information from and delivering to, mobile devices via information networks. Some services are already in the market and this is an area with high potential for entry by business newcomers. Various institutional approaches and cross-organizational cooperation will be necessary to ensure a liveable society with enhanced mobility on a global scale in the future. Issues include regulation and enforcement, funding and costs/benefits, security and privacy, standardisation and architecture as well as professional education and training.