The consulting industry in Nepal received new opportunities and challenges from early-seventies when government departments started using private professionals to provide services in small-scale engineering projects. Since then, though the industry has been on a continuous path of growth, the parallel support from the concerned quarters of the formulation of appropriate policies, regulations, and environment for healthy development could not take place.
Thus, to protect the interest of the consulting industry of the country, the Society of Consulting Architectural & Engineering Firms, Nepal (SCAEF) was registered with the then HMG/N on November 20, 1990, under the collective endeavor of the professional consulting firms. The Government recognized SCAEF as the National Body on August 15, 1996, and designed the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works as a “Line Ministry” to look after the interest of SCAEF and its member firms on February 22, 2005. The Public Works Directives (PWD), January 2002, published by the then HMG/N requires the consulting firms to be registered with the professional societies mandatory for getting shortlisted to participate in proposal submission.