Question

While several partners at Engineering Tech are intrigued and willing to invest time to put a bid together, the company’s board members are concerned about an endeavor in a nation beset by so many challenges. How, they wonder, will Engineering Tech protect its interests and ensure excellent results in a place where a major national language, Amharic, is spoken nowhere else in the world?

Answer 1

Answer

Engineering Tech is a large, national engineering partnership in Australia, with expertise in large-scale infrastructure projects, including public-private partnership (PPP) projects involvinggovernment departments and agencies. It has been a major player in various parts of Australia,and has ventured into consulting activities in Japan and other parts of Asia.A senior partner of the firm was recently approached about executing a major infrastructureproject in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, near the Bole International Airport. The country has a proudhistory of never being colonized. Recent history has not been kind to the nation, with it facing war,drought, starvation and the growing threat of Islamic extremist groups operating in the region.Those harsh realities aside, the country has benefited from foreign aid and some investment, andthe partner at Engineering Tech perceives an opportunity to do some good, as well as to take ona complicated, profitable project in a region considered too risky by the firm’s competitors.Engineering Tech has an excellent relationship with Efic, Australia’s Export Finance andInsurance Corporation. The agency is viewed by many as a very progressive, dynamic andinnovative export credit body which will go to great lengths to promote the success of Australianexports, including taking in significant country and bank risk to do so, when warranted.While several partners at Engineering Tech are intrigued and willing to invest time to put a bidtogether, the company’s board members are concerned about an endeavor in a nation beset byso many challenges.