RE: CEB 20 Oct 2015 13:30
Goggins, 6 weeks may or may not be a long time for negotiations to come to fruition in Indonesia.
I've never dealt there.
My experience is with countries East of here, like India and China where preliminaries, contract discussion with many options and final agreements can take months to finalise and sign off.
Western countries; USA, Canada, Europe etc. are far quicker.
One/two guys from the USA or Canada can discuss a massive contract over 2/3 days and make an instant decision to sign.
China bring a delegation of 15/20 people, including the man responsible for the money and a party member to ensure no one says anything they shouldn't, munch over everything for a couple of weeks, change the scope of work several times, knock the price down to the price they originally had in mind, then return and you don't hear anything for a few months. One day you might get a contract signed up. However they do give excellent presents when they have your confidence. On the other hand.....
India, you don't get anywhere unless you've greased the palm of the commissionaire on the door and the secretary to the chief engineer with English china and contributed to the Chief Engineers rose garden.
So I'm content here to wait 'till the traditions and philosophies of this particular country play their course.
Very frustrating for DW I expect, but he knows the people and would understand their philosophies.
So please don't knock the delays; they just happen.
Unfortunately some punters and certainly the MM's think everything will drop into place immediately.