IESL granted EMF provisional membership

THE Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) was granted Provisional Membership of the Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF) at the International Engineering Meeting (IEM) held in Hong Kong last week.

Provisional Membership of the EMF means that the IESL is now on the road to becoming a Full Member in 2007.

This will ensure that the other signatory countries of the EMF will recognise the grade of Professional Engineer awarded by the IESL. "This is the first step towards obtaining full membership," said the President, IESL, Eng L.C.R. de Silva who led the Sri Lanka delegation.

"Thereafter professional skills obtained from Sri Lanka would be more recognized which would result in Sri Lankans gaining more employment opportunities and also contribute to higher returns," de Silva said.

The present members of the EMF are the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Korea and Malaysia.

The IEM meeting is a bi-annual meeting at which issues relevant to the international or regional practice of engineering are reviewed. The IESL already has a mechanism for awarding the status of the Chartered Engineer after an assessment process.

However it is found that the existing requirements for the Chartered Engineer fall short of the requirements of the EMF. IESL has also created another category of engineers, called the "Professional Engineer" who would match up to the requirements of the EMF.

Eng. (Prof) L.L. Ratnayake and Eng Russel De Zilwa also participated in the event.