SMEC was established by the Commonwealth Government in 1970 to apply internationally the skills developed for the Snowy Mountains Scheme (1949-74) The company was privatised by sale to the staff in 1993 and remains staff owned. SMEC has been involved with aid all this time and in its international work is a specialist development company. Some features of the company’s role in aid follow.

• Aid is a complex transaction involving government agencies, private suppliers of goods and services and the transfer of skills across some of the world’s greatest cultural divides
• Aid has existed for more than 50 years, so it is quite a mature industry
• SMEC has supplemented its core business of large scale projects in transport, energy and water to encompass institutional strengthening (capacity building), health care, education and other areas of social infrastructure
• Training has always played an important part in SMEC’s international work; today the company benefits from the fact that many senior decision-makers (especially in South East Asia and China) were trained on SMEC projects
• Aid requires a unique blend of skills, especially an ability to perform technical tasks in unfamiliar cultural environments; services need to be delivered in a way that makes sense in local conditions if their impact is to be sustained; the aid consultant must take account of international best practice but also local best practice
• Australians are generally very well regarded in international aid circles, particularly in Asia and Africa; this is because Australians have a reputation for a practical approach, are ready to get stuck in and get a job done and have a friendly and co-operative manner; not having a strong colonial tradition is also a help; many Australians work for international companies based in Europe or North America
• SMEC established its reputation in Asia through participation in the Australian bilateral aid program which began with the Colombo Plan in 1950; this enabled the company to demonstrate its capability and build up a track record in the 1970s, allowing it to graduate to World Bank and Asian Development Bank work which is now the bulk of our international business; it is fair to say that without the opportunities presented by Australian aid we would not be in the position we are in today; the Australian aid program continues to perform this role for Australian companies entering the international market
• The range of activities conducted under the aid program have changed over time; physical infrastructure is les prominent now than it used to be; rural development remains important, but urban development is increasingly important (at some time in the early decades of this century more people will be living in urban than rural areas for the first time in human history); environmental issues are extremely important today; AIDS prevention is an area that has emerged dramatically over the past decade, involving the introduction to aid work of many new organisations with specialist skills; companies like SMEC can perform a useful project management function by combining specialist expertise with an understanding of the needs and requirements of international agencies (reporting, accounting, project evaluation, etc)
• Nurturing a new generation of development professionals is quite important; younger people need a start in the aid business to determine whether a career in aid is for them and to get the beginnings of a track record; AusAID supports this through the Youth Ambassadors program and support for Australian volunteers through AESOP and Australian Volunteers Abroad
• Many SMEC staff are based in remote locations, sometimes in quite difficult circumstances in terms of housing and local amenities; this can cause some problems at times, but basically SMEC staff enjoy the technical challenges of their work, the practical benefits to the local communities which aid provides and the stimulation of working in different cultural environments; at present, for instance, we have staff in the highlands of Lesotho in Africa, in Nepal in the Himalayas, in northern Iraq and Kosovo working for the UN, on highways projects in various parts of China and India, and on small Pacific islands; aid work is addictive.