Under the terms of the agreement, FIDIC has granted the World Bank a non-exclusive licence to refer to the six major contracts for projects it finances.
The six mainly include the 2017 Second edition FIDIC contracts, which cover a wide range of international construction and infrastructure work.
FIDIC also expects to announce a similar agreement with the other multilateral development banks.
FIDIC chief executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said: “This is a major development for FIDIC and we are delighted that the World Bank has agreed to adopt our 2017 editions of the Rainbow suite of contracts and use them as a key part of their standard bidding documents. This will create more certainty in the market as by adopting the FIDIC contacts on major projects the World Bank is saying that they endorse the fair and balanced approach that these documents offer to parties on major construction contracts. The familiarity that the FIDIC contracts bring make it easier to get projects under way as many of the typical commercial risks are clearly addressed in the contracts and all the parties understand their obligations and responsibilities.”
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He added that endorsement by the World Bank should provide additional comfort to the financial, institutional and private equity investors operating in the global market to adopt the use of FIDIC standard procurement contracts as an effective tool to mitigate risk. “Over the coming months, we will be working with our member associations and strategic partners to ensure that the FIDIC 2017 contract editions are translated into five major languages - Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish - to aid effective use across the World Bank and other multilateral development banks’ operating countries,” he said.
World Bank chief procurement officer Enzo De Laurentiis said: “We are very pleased to continue to build on our long collaboration with FIDIC by adopting the standard conditions of contracts in the 2017 suite for use in projects financed by the World Bank, as appropriate and complemented by our Conditions of Particular Application (COPA). Together, the 2017 FIDIC standard conditions and our COPA, will ensure that infrastructure contracts financed by the World Bank continue to be based on an internationally recognised standard and reflect key aspects of our policies and practice related, among others, to managing environmental, social and integrity risks.”
FIDIC president Alain Bentéjac said: “This move by the World Bank represents major international market buy-in for our FIDIC 2017 Second edition contracts and one that we hope will also influence the supply chain to adopt FIDIC contracts thereby creating even more certainty in the planning and delivery of major international construction and infrastructure projects.”
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