What are Engineering Consultants?

Engineering consulting refers to following the principles of independence, science, and impartiality, using multidisciplinary knowledge and experience in engineering technology, science and technology, economic management, and laws and regulations to make decisions for engineering construction projects for government departments, project owners, and other various customers And management provide intellectual services for consulting activities, including consulting in the early stages of project establishment, consulting in the survey and design stage, consulting in the construction stage, and evaluation after commissioning or commissioning.

project consultancy

Article 1 of the Catalogue of Administrative Licensing Items of the State Council Department that the State Council has decided to cancel has been cancelled.

Engineering consulting has a history of more than 100 years in the world. In China, it is a new thing and new term that emerged after reform and opening up.

According to the "Administrative Measures for the Engineering Consulting Industry (NDRC [2017] No. 9)", engineering consulting business is divided according to the following professions:

(1) agriculture and forestry;

(2) water conservancy and hydropower;

(3) Electricity (including thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, new energy);

(D) coal;

(5) Petroleum and natural gas;

(6) highways;

(7) Railway and urban rail transit;

(8) Civil aviation;

(9) Water transportation (including port and river engineering);

(10) Electronics and information engineering (including communication, broadcasting, and informatization);

(11) Metallurgy (including iron and steel and non-ferrous metals);

(12) petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical industries;

(13) the nuclear industry;

(14) Machinery (including intelligent manufacturing);

(15) Light industry and textiles;

(16) Building materials;

(Seventeen) buildings;

(18) Municipal public works;

(19) Ecological construction and environmental engineering;

(20) Hydrogeology, engineering survey, geotechnical engineering;

(21) Others (subject to actual majors).

Engineering consulting services include:

(1) Planning consultation: including the preparation of general plans, special plans, regional plans and industry plans;

(2) Project consultation: including project investment opportunity research, investment and financing planning, project proposal (pre-feasibility study), project feasibility study report, project application report, preparation of fund application report, government and social capital cooperation (PPP) Project consulting, etc.

(3) Evaluation and consultation: Planning, project proposal, feasibility study report, project application report, fund application report, PPP project implementation plan, preliminary design evaluation, planning and project mid-term evaluation, Post-evaluation, review of project budget and final accounts, and other professional technical services required to perform investment management functions;

(IV) Whole process engineering consultation: It is the owner's overall process management, consultation and service for the organization and implementation of the project.

The engineering consulting industry is a typical investment-driven industry, and the investment boom is linearly related to the boom of the engineering consulting industry. The past decade has been a decade of rapid economic development in China, a decade of investment-driven economic development, and a decade of rapid development of engineering consulting. However, since 2011, China's economy has encountered unprecedented adjustments. Weak external demand and weak domestic demand have led to a decline in investment and directly affected the development speed of the engineering consulting industry.

Data show that in 2012, the operating income of China's engineering consulting industry increased by about 15%, which is far lower than the average growth rate of 25% in the past five years. The direct reason for the slowdown in growth is the slowdown in China's fixed asset investment growth and the reduction in the number of construction projects. From another aspect, this is also an inevitable trend, because China's economic development also faces the situation of excess capacity in most industries.

At the same time, from the perspective of overcapacity and policy, how to solve the overcapacity is the problem that the government will focus on in the future. The situation of sluggish external demand makes the task of absorbing excess production capacity only be transferred back to the domestic market and starts domestic demand. This is also in line with the purpose of China's economic development, so that the fruits of economic development are shared by the people and their lives are happier. Therefore, in this context, it is logical for the growth rate of fixed asset investment to maintain a slow development, which is also in line with the current economic development trend.

China's current boom in fixed asset investment is good news for the engineering consulting industry.

Now the Chinese government has shifted its macro-control policy from "maintaining growth" in 2009 to the priority task of shifting to "promoting development mode" this year.

1. Compared with developed countries, the charging standards of engineering consulting industry in China still have a certain room for improvement. In developed countries, engineering consulting has become a very important task before project investment. The engineering consulting fee in Germany accounts for about 7.5% -14% of the construction cost; the engineering consulting fee in the UK is 8.85% -13.25%; the engineering consulting fee rate in the United States is between 6% -15% (data source: The 15th issue of Engineering Consulting Network Electronic Journal). In 2009, the operating income of China's survey and design industry accounted for only 3.05% of the total investment in fixed assets. It can be seen that compared with developed countries, there is still room for improvement in the charging standards of the engineering consulting industry in China.
2. Compared with developed countries, the operating income of China's engineering consulting companies still has a lot of room for improvement. In 2009, the top 60 engineering consulting companies in China's engineering design ENR had a total operating income of RMB 80.742 billion. Enterprise AECOM's total revenue in 2009 reached US $ 6.1 billion (40.138 billion yuan converted from US $ 1 to US $ 6.58), accounting for approximately 49.71% of the revenue of the top 60 engineering design consulting companies in China. From the above statistical data, the overall income level of China's engineering consulting industry still has a large gap compared with international giants, which also shows that China's engineering consulting enterprises still have great development potential.