Nick Burns, senior partner P&T Group, says Hong Kong's construction expertise is easy to export to a waiting global market

Hong Kong-based architects and engineers are using their highrise expertise to help address a critical lack of infrastructure in emerging economies around Asia.

In places like India and the Philippines, where second-rate office buildings are not acceptable for the many multinational companies establishing a presence there, demand vastly outstrips supply.

Across the Middle East - especially Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - foreign knowledge is needed to keep pace with a skyscraper boom believed to be unparalleled elsewhere in the world.

For numerous developers racing to secure supply for their cashed-up clients in waiting, Hong Kong professionals are working to fill the gap.

Stand-out example

Hong Kong-headquartered P&T Architect and Engineers Limited, founded as a one-man operation in 1868, is a case in point. Having been an integral part of Hong Kong and mainland China's development for nearly 140 years, the firm's expertise in urban architecture, structural engineering, project management and town planning is exported to markets across the region. P&T Group has over 900 staff involved in projects from Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Dubai, to Thailand, Indonesia and Australia/New Zealand.

Nick Burns, a senior partner of P&T Group who overseas all projects in the Middle East, says India is experiencing now what China went though 30 years ago - an emerging middle class.

"More than just housing, India needs towns, so an enormous amount of building is required," he said. "They don't have the experience or exposure to the Western world. What's happening in India happened previously to China, and is also happening in other places such as Thailand and Indonesia. The solution is that we provide the expertise, while they provide the (local) skills. It's a partnership arrangement."

Regional hub

P&T's business model is to have satellite offices on the ground in strategic cities across the region, all linked through the Hong Kong office, which is the "epicentre of our operations".  Hong Kong makes an ideal hub, Mr Burns said, because it is an international city where people are well educated, and have exposure to the world.

"It's also extremely easy to travel in an out of Hong Kong, and to run a business from Hong Kong," he said. "There's an enormous pool of talent here. The Hong Kong Chinese are the hardest and most efficient workers in the world, and they're also extremely well educated and keen to learn. This is why Hong Kong has done so well as a centre of knowledge for Asia."

Hong Kong's China experience is also proving invaluable to countries needing to import knowledge, Mr Burns added. Eighty per cent of the firm's work since 1990 has been in the Chinese mainland, initially doing housing and office buildings, then middle-class housing, and now mixed-use. Being located in Hong Kong has made the China focus so much easier, Mr Burns said.

Scope of work

P&T's current projects in India include a housing project in Chennai, residential lowrises in Bangalore and Mangalore, and four high rise residential projects and a hotel in Mumbai. The firm is also building the "City of Arabia", a 60 million sq. ft. mixed use residential, entertainment, retail and office complex in Dubai (effectively a city of 40,000 people), a HK$5 billion (US$643 million) residential project in Abu Dhabi, a HK$2 billion (US$257 million) high rise residential building and the planning of a 2 km strip of coastal development, both in Ajman north of Dubai. In Dubai itself, another three office buildings and three residential towers are being built.

The scope of work is enormous, and Hong Kong is used to dealing with other countries, so it's "able to do that well", Mr Burns says.

"Our firm, for example, offers 138 years of experience, 950 people, full architectural, structural, and mechanical and engineering services, and a wide experience of doing business in China. Who else but a Hong Kong firm could offer that?"

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