WORLD NEWS
The Kuala Lumpur – Singapore High-Speed Rail ( HSR ) project and others are under threat .
The newly elected Malaysian government will review all foreign contracts and projects , including the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore High-Speed Rail ( HSR ) project and those under China ’ s Belt and Road Initiative . This was announced in late May by new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad .
Mothership
He announced that the government would review them all to see how they favour the country . This came after the unexpected election victory of the opposition coalition . Since then , there has been uncertainty over mega infrastructure projects like the HSR . The latter project deal was only signed in December 2016 with the previous administration , and the 350km rail link was expected to begin operations in 2026 . Mahathir had previously opposed the HSR deal , citing the debt Malaysia would have to take on . “ We have to know whether we really need this HSR or not ,” he told Malaysia ’ s Sunday Times newspaper in January last year . Reiterating this viewpoint , he pledged during the 2018 election campaign to review all mega projects sanctioned by political party Barisan Nasional under former Prime Minister Najib Razak , saying some of them might be cancelled if they were found to be wasteful and unnecessary . The fate of the HSR is therefore now uncertain — the deadline for the primary tender was pushed back from June to December following requests from bidders , but the election results may delay this further . However , it is still early days to assess what the Mahathir government will mean for major projects .
Royal Academy of Engineering CEO Hayaatun Sillem describes Britain ’ s record on employing female engineers as “ embarrassing ” and the worst in Europe . The proportion of women employed by British engineering companies has not increased above 10 %. Britain ’ s record on employing female engineers is the worst in Europe , well behind countries such as Latvia , Cyprus , and Bulgaria , where about 30 % of their engineering workforces is women , and also behind Sweden ( 26 %) and Italy ( 20 %). In countries like Malaysia and Oman , the engineering workforce is 50 % female , debunking the myth that engineering is a ‘ white man in a hard hat ’ profession . Less than 10 % of professional engineers in Britain are women , as well as only about 15 % of engineering students . This exacerbates the shortfall in the number of engineers needed by industry . Sillem said the gender imbalance was particularly frustrating given the significant progress made by other countries and in professions such as medicine and law . “ I feel almost ashamed that I have to go there and talk about the statistics that we have on women in engineering after decades of effort ,” she said in an article published in the UK ’ s Guardian newspaper . “ Engineers have a huge role in designing the infrastructure of the world around us and designing algorithms embedded in the world around us . It cannot be healthy that they do not reflect the broader society that those algorithms and infrastructure serves ,” said Sillem . While other countries have moved on in Britain , the profession ’ s image remains “ incredibly highly gendered ”, she says in the article . This positions Britain at the extreme end of the spectrum , making it hard to attract people who would not envisage themselves as engineers .
South West Business
Women are an endangered species in British engineering .
The stereotype of engineering being about working on industrialscale construction projects is no longer true , with the engineering profession today contributing to medical technologies , artificial intelligence , and building efforts in the developing world . A recent report by Engineering UK quantified the UK demand for engineers at about 124 000 each year , while the number being appointed each year is 37 000 – 59 000 lower than this . Sillem , who was appointed in January , says the lack of diversity in some parts of industry might be attributed to old-boy networks or work culture . She says it was encouraging that fewer people today argue that there are so few women in engineering because girls have less interest or ability in the subject . “ There ’ s a growing body of evidence that debunks that myth . The evidence just does not support the idea that there ’ s something inherent ,” Sillem says .
10 - CEC August 2018