Infrastructure development lays the foundation for growth into Africa
PRESS RELEASE
Infrastructure development lays the foundation for growth into Africa
21 October, 2014: In order to better meet clients’ development needs and to continue its ongoing success across Africa, consulting engineering and project implementation firm Hatch Goba is creating specific focus areas around the key infrastructure challenges that clients are faced with.
Hatch Goba Regional Director of Infrastructure for the Africa, Europe and Mena (AEM) region, Craig Simmer reveals that the unit will be pursuing two major development themes aimed at both public sector and industrial sector clients. “These themes will be the driving force behind the business going forward, particularly into Africa.”
Simmer indicates that developed countries focus their spending on protecting and improving established infrastructure and assets. “In contrast, developing countries are still in the process of setting up and establishing infrastructure to create capacity to enable economic growth.”
In addition, research carried out in this area shows that improving the productivity of existing and new infrastructure can result in substantial capital expenditure savings. Social and environmental factors are playing an increasingly prominent role in the way projects are conceptualised, funded and delivered on the continent, while technical considerations remain an important factor.
Noting the reduction of project delivery capability within client bodies due to various factors, the company is ensuring that it’s total suite of service offerings are packaged according to client’s needs to create a complete infrastructure delivery solution for each particular client.
Simmer reveals that Hatch Goba enjoys a unique positioning within the Hatch global organisation, as the AEM region is able to offer the full suite of Hatch’s global service offerings at very competitive rates without any compromise in technical excellence, due to highly skilled personnel in this region. “This unique positioning, coupled with our access to a global skills base, means we can bring the best of Hatch to our clients on the continent.”
Hatch Africa and Goba completed their merger in April 2014. Simmer points out that by all accounts, the transition has been relatively seamless due to the complementary nature of the individual service offerings and similar cultures. “However, the company is not taking anything for granted and is implementing a deliberate change management strategy which also focuses on individual staff needs,” he continues.
Future growth
The need for infrastructure in South Africa is strong, with programmes being established to drive further growth and development. Simmer observes that government is increasingly turning to the private sector to assist with infrastructure delivery needs.
“These increasing large infrastructure delivery programmes will drive further growth in this sector both in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. Procurement and finance related issues still appear to be a significant challenge in rolling out these large infrastructure development programmes,” he adds.
Simmer has little doubt that once these challenges have been addressed, the industry will be ready to take up the delivery mantle in conjunction with their key clients.“As a large project company with extensive resources and expertise, Hatch Goba boasts the means to carry out large-scale projects and programmes for clients across Africa. Although this will be our primary focus for the foreseeable future, we will continue our commitment to making our resources available to all of our key clients to meet their delivery needs,” he concludes.
Ends
Notes to the Editor
There are numerous photographs specific to this press release. Please visit http://media.ngage.co.za and click on the Hatch Goba link.
About Hatch Goba
Hatch Goba supplies process and business consulting, information technology, engineering, procurement and project and construction management and operational services to the mining, metallurgical, energy and infrastructure industries.
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