Interview with Rakhimberdi Ayatov, Director of KEREY Engineering Group Ltd.

Rakhimberdi Ibragimovich, please share your thoughts concerning the essence of construction consulting and its features in the context of Kazakhstan

Yes, of course … with pleasure. In last two decades, the construction sphere of our country has been developed at a quite significant pace: a number of construction companies have been increased; the manufacturers of construction materials have begun to offer new different products and technologies allowing to reduce the construction period and to improve the quality of facilities.

The development of construction sector in Kazakhstan has been also stimulated by the national programs aimed at expansion of housing construction, as well the development programs for the regions of Kazakhstan. Furthermore, the number of private developers who build apartment buildings has increased. Moreover, the highways, bridges, power stations, power lines, dams, industrial buildings, administrative offices and other facilities of industrial and urban infrastructure are reconstructed or built again by the finances of state budget, foreign and local investors, private enterprises and individuals.

However, the world financial crisis has resulted in some certain corrections in the work of constructors. Thus, before contractors tried to reduce the construction period and to increase the volume, but today the main objective is to reduce the costs while preserving the high quality of buildings.

That, in its turn, has strengthened the importance and role of construction consulting, the main task of which is to help the builders to choose the most efficient and cost-effective construction technologies and materials, and to ensure the compliance of all construction works and materials with required codes and rules.

I think it is necessary to clarify: Construction Consulting is an activity, consisting of several directions. In the context of our Republic, the most required of them are technical documentation and design, cost estimates and environmental consulting.

At the first stage of construction, when it comes to preparing the business plan, obtaining the land for the construction, executing the geodetic survey, developing the correct project documentation, drafting the cost estimates and obtaining the permits – all these "paper" works take a lot of time and require a high concentration from the contractor. For this reason, the construction companies are willing to use the professional consulting services for this.

The cost estimates consulting, consisting in assessment of construction itself and step-by-step development of the project financing plan is also needed, especially, at the initial stage of construction. One of the directions of cost estimates consulting is a financial monitoring, the objective of which is to control the expenditure and receipt of funds during the construction.

Today the environmental consulting is also very important. It presents an indicator of environmental status, development of particular sections of the design documentation, preparation and realization of mandatory procedure such as state ecological expertise. In addition, the expert’s consultancy in the field of environmental control is very required in the selection of construction materials and technologies.

Unfortunately, in many countries of the former Soviet Union it is very common to see a situation, when the contractors trying to win the tender for construction works, unfairly decrease the cost of their services. In this case, they can fulfill their obligations only by using the substandard materials, unskilled labor or by violating the technical process of construction. In future, such "activities" for the reduction in time and costs of construction lead to the negative results. There are cases, when the contractor does not follow the established standards and technologies in order to get more profit.

This has given the understanding that in the construction of any property, it is desirable to trust the independent expert, who has no interests in sale of construction materials and in provision of construction services, and who will help to make the technically optimal solutions and ensure their proper implementation on site.

More than a year ago, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan outlined "100 concrete steps to carry out 5 institutional reforms" which have affected the construction engineering, and in particular, construction supervision. Could you share your thoughts about it?

According to the document adopted "100 concrete steps" the abandonment of government monopoly on expertize of pre-design, design and estimate documentation should be also one of the most significant and long-term changes in the construction business of Kazakhstan.

Therefore, the monopolist represented by the republican state enterprise "State non-departmental project expertise" (RSE Gosekspertiza) under the Committee on construction, housing and communal services and Land Resources Management of Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan will lose its authority up to 2017.

At the first stage, in this year it is foreseen to redirect 50% of construction projects to the private expertise companies and at the second stage by 2017 - up to 90%.

Accordingly, I suppose that the pressure of independent construction supervision and expertise, including activities for the assessment, research and findings related to all components of new or existing facilities, from design to preparation of actual technical specifications will be on "shoulders" of highly specialized engineering companies. I think that is very deliberate and appropriate approach, which gives a great impetus to the development of engineering sphere in Kazakhstan, for both scope of works and study and realization of world best practices.

What can you say about the changes made to the commissioning?

It is well known that according to the previous Law "On Architectural town-planning and construction activities in the Republic of Kazakhstan" the facilities were commissioned by the working and state acceptance committees, which, in its turn, signed by the relevant government authorities, the customer and general contractor.

On January 1, 2016, there are no such words as working, state acceptance committees, so the commissioning process is realized in such way that the receiving party will be only those, who directly involved in the construction of the object, namely, the client and contractor, technical and architectural supervision.

In this case, the Client approves the acceptance certificate upon submission by the contractor to the customer the declaration of readiness to the commissioning - technical supervision - conclusions about the quality of construction and installation works – architectural supervision - statement of conformity of work performed under the approved project.

It means that state authorities, including the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, State Architectural and Construction Control, Fire-Fighting Services, Sanitary and Epidemiological Services and others, starting from January 1, 2016, is no longer directly involved in the acceptance process.

State architectural and building control will be carried out through monitoring of expert’s activities, which realizes the construction supervision and in case of appeals by the parties on violations during the construction.

Rakhimberdi Ibragimovich, KEREY Engineering Group is quite young company. Bring to the light, please, who, what and where you are...

KEREY Engineering Group Ltd. established as the subsidiary company of UBI Consulting LLC at the outset of its existence has unlimited access to all intellectual, labor and territorial resources of the head company, which in its turn is a multi-industry engineering and consulting company and over 14 years in active cooperation with international organizations such as ADB, EBRD, DFID, the EuropeAid, IDB, JICA, USAID, World Bank, etc., has implemented more than 150 projects in oil and gas, power, agriculture sectors, as well as in the sphere of transport and communications, health care and pharmacy, water supply and sewage, environment and education.

KEREY Engineering Group Ltd. positions itself as the universal supplier of engineering services that comprehensively decides different tasks for the construction and reconstruction of industrial facilities (design, delivery of equipment, management of cost estimates, construction supervision and expertise).

Considering the high competition in the market of construction consulting, we focus on the economically optimized and customer-oriented work. We are very flexible in the implementation of defined tasks. The professionalism of our specialists can compete with the companies, which have already recognized in the implementation of EPC and FIDIC contracts financed by ADB, EBRD, DFID, EuropeAid, IDB, USAID, World Bank, etc.

Our most important task and, at the same time – the basis of success is the creation of effective mechanism of interaction with our partners, when realizing our most of competitive advantages. We are convinced that we are able to provide our customers with high-qualified, balanced perspective engineering services, which will be based on efficiency, quality and reasonable prices through our professional management and significant potential.

As we know "personnel solves everything" … how about this issue?

Today, KEREY Engineering Group has in its possession about 30 thousand specialists in 14 countries of the former Soviet Union and foreign countries thanks to strong positions of Head Company. More than 90% of industry experts and managers have a higher academic education. This gives us an opportunity to "speak" not only in industrial language but also in the "dialect" of narrow specialization.

If you are interested in more information, you can go to our website - www. kerey.info., where you can find more details on specialization of our experts and their location.

We have very informative interview. Thank you, Rakhimberdi Ibragimovich for such interesting thoughts. At the end, could you identify the goals of your company for near future?

I must admit that despite the fact that we are active in the market of engineering services of Kazakhstan, we are not so active in all regions of the Republic. Our perspective goal is - to strengthen our position as the supplier of highly qualified engineering, construction supervision services in each place of our great country. You can get more information about the size of our preparatory works, by visiting our website: www. kerey.info.

We wish You good luck and prosperity to Your company

Thank you