Developing a modern design code for steel and composite construction in Asia

Globalization is surely affecting us in various walks of life these days. In the construction industry nowadays, it is very trendy for engineers to think and talk about international professional recognition, worldwide consultancy service, and regional if not global codes of practice. It is well known among those of us in the construction industry that the highly acclaimed Structural Eurocodes have been officially published in the last few years, and they are expected to be adopted throughout all the European countries as definitive technical documents on the design and construction of buildings and bridges. In the last couples of years, similar code developments are engaged in many parts of the world, including a number of countries in North America as well as in Asia. This paper aims to present various key issues towards the development of a modern design code for steel and composite construction in Asia as an attempt to examine the huge opportunities offered in a regional code for Asia. Experiences are drawn from the recent drafting of the Hong Kong Steel Code which is compiled by a joint venture between academics and engineers over a period of two and a half years. As the situations of steel and composite building construction in Hong Kong are widely shared among the neighbouring countries, similar courses of action are recommended to increase both the efficiency and the competitiveness of the construction industry in the region.