• FHKIS, R.P.S. (QS)
• Chairperson, PAQS YQSG
• Hon Treasurer, HKIS QSD
• President, LEAPS

I am honored to continue my role as Chairperson of the PAQS Young QS Group (YQSG) for 2025.

Leading this team of bright young professionals remains a true honor. Let's continue to nurture our culture of collaboration, respect, and inclusivity where all voices are valued. Together, we can achieve remarkable heights in quantity surveying.

This year, I am particularly excited about our planned initiatives, including the PAQS YQSG International Conference and our mentorship program. I eagerly look forward to collaborating with each of you to bring these to life.

With our combined efforts, I am confident we will not only meet but exceed the expectations set before us, resulting in valuable and enriching experiences for all involved in 2025.

Thank you for your continued trust and support. Let's embark on this year's journey together with enthusiasm, determination, and a shared vision for a brighter future in quantity surveying.

Thank You!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hello everyone. I was my utmost honoured to be nominated as the 5th Chairman for PAQS Young Quantity Surveyors Group (YQSG) for the new term.

Allow me to begin by thanking the outgoing Chair, Mr. Hasitha Gunasekana of IQSSL for the important work he had done over the last two terms. It had been a great opportunity for me to have worked with and supported him as the Secretary for YQSG in the past two terms. Thank you to the PAQS Chair, Professor Chitra Weddikkara, and the Board for the trust and recognition for me in the appointment. Special thanks to those who have believed in me and recommended me to take on this honourable role.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the Past Chair and Advisor of YQSG, Aaron Wong and Amie from PUJA and PICQS respectively for their continued support and encouragement rendered to me. I am also grateful to PAQS Past Chairman Mr Kwan Hock Hai from RISM for his words of wisdom and affirmation.

The year 2022 had marked an eventful year and was particularly significant for me. First, PAQS was held in Singapore, my homeland. I was part of the organising committee and also led the planning for YQSG program. It was very heartwarming to see everyone in person after the two years hiatus where friends and acquaintances exchanged hugs and hands shake. Being the recipient of PAQS Service Excellent Award for my years of service and contribution to PAQS, I am earnestly committed to PAQS and YQSG.

Moving on, I am eagerly looking forward to working together with PAQS members, other associated member countries and, especially, the YQSG Committee to create a more effective, cohesive and intellectual group at the international level for the benefit of, not only the rights holders (YQSG in this case) but also the general membership of the PAQS. I am a strong believer of continued learning and I hope to bring more educational talks and webinars to the family of PAQS and the young promising professionals. Echoing Aaron's chairman message, "let us strive on and on together".

Take care my friend and till we meet again.

I have been honored to be appointed as the fourth Chairman of the PAQS- young QS group.

As I believe the young generation is the key drivers of any profession. Their active participation towards the profession and commitment for the success would decide the future of the profession. As the young QS group (YQSG) of the PAQS we hold this task since the first program held in 2010.

Being the proud member of this group since 2011 I was privileged to work with three chairmen; Sr Joseph Chong, Sr Yeap Soon Kiat and Sr Aaron Wong whom I would like to express my gratitude. With their commitment they uplift this group to this position. I will have the responsibility of carrying their efforts further to the future.

YQSG has been always a flatform for sharing knowledge and experience of young QSs who are practicing in different environment. More over this has been a social gathering where we could develop new friendship and experience new cultures. Even though this team has been called young QS group, this has been always a family with its members are scattered in different countries.

I am grateful to the knowledge I gain through the interaction with members of the YQSG. It is proud to see the growing membership of this group year by year and to see the new youngsters who are joining each year.

All the credit should go to the founder members of this group, past chairmen who has relentlessly put their efforts to this group, all the committee members who has provide their support throughout these years & years to follows and more over to the members of this group for their continuous support and commitment.

Further I wish to convey my sincere gratitude for the PAQS chairman and the committee members for their trust laid upon this group of youngsters.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is an honor to be the third chairman of the Young Quantity Surveyors Group. The support given is highly appreciated and I shall lead the group the best I can.

I would like to thank our first Chairman Sr Joseph Chong Hok Ching and second Chairman Sr Yeap Soon Kiat for their amazing effort in making what YQSG of PAQS is today as well as their enormous support and valuable advice in the management and activities carried out over the years and hopefully in the many years to come.

I was able to attend the PAQS YQSG Programme since 2012 where it was hosted in Brunei Darussalam, then Xi'an of China, Hong Kong, Yokohama of Japan, Christchurch of New Zealand and now Vancouver of Canada. And hopefully many more years to come.

I value this platform dearly because it has allowed me to gain invaluable knowledge and friendships. It is a marvel that each country has their own construction culture while the foundation is very much the same anywhere on Earth. It is a success that YQSG platform has enabled sharing of ideas, experiences and information from various countries that would have been otherwise unreachable. Let us continue to strengthen this platform for the benefit of young Quantity Surveyors for generations to come.

Lastly, I would also like to thank our committee members for working hard together. Though we had the barrier of time zones and distances between more than 10 countries, we managed to align to our goals. I am pleased to see that year after year, our group was not content to rest on its laurels but strive to build on its programs, foster and bond.

So, let us strive on and on together. Thank you!

Greetings to All or Jikou no aisatsu in Japanese,

I am most honored & humbled to be given this top spot to deliver some of my heart felt messages to my fellow PAQS YQSG members & hard-serving YQSG exco.

Next year 28-29 May, we will again gather in Japan's beautiful modern city of Yokohama and look forward to a bigger participation from all 13 member countries. Let's together relive the warmth and cuddling brief moments we all had together recently in Hong Kong 2014 as well as previous year programs. It is through all our efforts that we can show to the world that we are truly international without boundaries and one big family of PAQS YQSG. Remembering the earthquake and tsunami of November 2012, we as a group of young caring QS should also come together with a financial or physical plan prior to Yokohama 2015 to support and care to some of the victims of the disaster namely orphans & elderly.

One of my missions is to groom up future leaders and train up a strong team that will helm YQSG in the near future. And I look forward to partner, mentor and guide Young QS Warriors who are ready, available, dedicated & passionate about our young group's missions and visions.

Last but not least, I must say that my predecessor no other than Sr Joseph Chong and his previous team did a great job in giving birth and growing YQSG into its current organized and developed state. On behalf of the new team we would like to extend our greatest appreciation and gratitude to his leadership, dedication and contribution for the past 4 years.

My closing message goes with a huge thanks for all the hard work, dedication and contribution... (i am speechless to describe all) of the Editorial and Publishing Team led by Sr Vincent Lau and Sr Hasitha Gunasekara. Without these creative YQS, we will not be having this newsletter in front of you at all!

*Extracted from YQSG PAQS Newsletter 2014: Think Outside the Box. Download here.

The Diversity of Quantity Surveyors – in Different Projects and Different Countries

There are 2,742 qualified quantity surveying members (as at 28 April 2015) in the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS). Most of them are employed by property developers, consultancy firms and contractors to manage construction cost and contract issues.

Most property developers in Hong Kong have teams of quantity surveyors working in their project management, cost control, quantity surveying, or commercial departments. They need people with cost and contract expertise to monitor and control their projects' construction costs, while design consultants and in-house designers try to focus on and achieve the best aesthetics and quality to meet the highest functional requirements of the properties' end-users. Usually, a developer's top managers want different design options to choose from and need to know the cost of each option before deciding on one.

On one hand, quantity surveyors, as project team members, need to support their project teams and provide team members with cost and contractual advice. On the other hand, they need to establish a project budget at the beginning of a project and continuously update and control it until the project is completed. This control process requires them to challenge and query other team members on the need for a particular expenditure and explore alternative options to cut costs, including using alternative materials, construction methods, and procurement routes.

Sometimes quantity surveyors need to review, approve, and audit costs and contracts that are not construction-related and submitted by other departments, such as operational and maintenance costs. These include things as minor as a kitchenware purchase and the printing of a Christmas decoration sticker. There are plenty of opportunities for quantity surveyors to work with different departments and with different professionals.

If projects are funded by external financial resources, quantity surveyors who work for property developers would probably need to work with the external funders, in-house lawyers, and accountants to draft contracts, set up tendering and payment procedures, control and report on costs, and comply with loan agreements. Thus, they have to be familiar with design processes, tendering procedures, and construction costs. Not many property developers recruit fresh graduates to work in their cost management arms, as fresh graduates normally need to gain experience in cost consultants and contractors for several years and become qualified members of the HKIS before they can secure jobs under property developers.

Quantity surveyors in Hong Kong are lucky to have opportunities to be involved in projects outside of Hong Kong. They can apply their skills to a wide range of projects because the practices in Hong Kong are similar to those in many other countries. Most importantly, the HKIS's professional standards are recognised by many of its counterparts in other parts of the world because the HKIS has signed reciprocity agreements with many other quantity surveying institutions overseas to mutually recognise each other's professional standards.

Many quantity surveyors from Hong Kong also work on Mainland projects because they possess high integrity and professional standards. They work impartially and are not biased when dealing with suppliers and contractors over sensitive matters such as costs and contracts. Construction projects in China are usually large-scale and the contract values usually involve hundreds of millions of RMB. Developers from overseas and Hong Kong usually employ quantity surveyors from Hong Kong and station them at their project sites to manage the project's costs and contracts. Often, they are also responsible for managing a team of local cost engineers.

A few years ago, I had the chance to join the activities of an international quantity surveying organisation called the Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors (PAQS). PAQS is a confederation of national quantity surveying associations from the Asia-Pacific region including Canada, Japan, China, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, etc. In 2009, some of its younger members set up a "Young Quantity Surveyors Group" for quantity surveyors who were under 40. Since 2010, it has been organising annual programmes in different countries, during which they visit key construction sites and exchange views with members from other countries through discussions and presentations. These events benefit practicing younger quantity surveyors by giving them first hand exposure to quantity surveying practices in other countries.

A construction project can last from three to ten years, depending on its scale. Quantity surveying is a stable profession, as quantity surveyors are involved in a project from its earliest design stage to the final account stage. As quantity surveyors are involved in different projects in different locations, their jobs can be interesting and dynamic. Every day they face new challenges and gain new experiences from the projects they work on.

*Extracted from www.cpjobs.com/hk/. View original article here.