CEOs were more pessimistic about India. Omar Shahzad, CEO of Singapore-based Meinhardt Group, said that while the firm was profitable there in the past, the last few years have been tough. "It will take years to overcome macro-economic challenges there," he said, such as maintaining the value of the rupee.

"Doing business as an international company is much harder as the regulations keep changing," he said. Shahzad advised peers to "wait and see for the next 12 months," since much investment is on hold, pending upcoming elections next spring.

Mining Woes Hit Southern Hemisphere

Firms were more optimistic about South America as a long-term investment, despite current market travails in key countries such as Brazil.

SNC-Lavalin's Card said the country "was a tough place in which to start up and make money." While his firm has 2,000 employees there, "I don’t know if I’d go there if we weren't there already."

Card became CEO of the firm in 2012 following the ouster of its previous CEO, who now faces bribery-related legal charges. "If you buy a company there, you can end up inheriting huge liabilities without knowing it," he said. "That’s why lots of firms are for sale there and not many of us are buying. The structure of the market also is socially complex. There are a lot of unwritten rules."

He noted new potential in Colombia, where the firm employs 2,000 people. "It's small but an emerging resource market," Card said. WorleyParsons' Ross noted the mining slowdown affecting its work in Peru and Chile, "but overall I still see Latin America as very respectable. The potential exceeds the current growth rate."

McArthur of Arcadis said the firm's 15-year presence in Brazil has insulated it against market swings in mining or oil and gas. But he sees Chile a slower-growing market with less infrastructure spending "and more Spanish competitors who know the language."

Conlin of Golder, which has worked in South America for a decade, said the mining sector will return but likely not to the same strength as before. "We don’t see commodity prices as explosive again," he said.

The mining sector collapse also has roiled design firms in Australia, those domestically-based and more recent arrivals from abroad.

John Douglas, CEO of Sydney-based Coffey International Ltd., said the country's economy "had a charmed run since 2008 when the rest of the world went into a slowdown. Now it's converging with the others. He noted three key factors: rising commodity prices, "our cost structure got out of line with the rest of world," and six months of "political uncertainty" in the country.

Said Douglas: "A lot of American firms thought it was a great idea to come here. Now we're seeing a lot of people get burned."

Jose Granado, CEO of Wood & Grieve Engineers, said there could be as many as 7,000 unemployed engineers in western Australia.

Ian Hopkins, CEO of Australian designer Norman, Disney & Young, noted that the country is moving to substitute infrastructure work to fill the mining work gap, with state governments influential in the process. He said that despite past dysfunction, the government of New South Wales is embarking on new projects, as is Queensland, which had cut back spending in recent years.

New Zealand, while small, also shows potential, particularly in rebuilding the earthquake-ravaged capital of Christchurch, a government-funded effort. "It will be lucrative, but it's a 10-year journey," said Aurecon's Paul Hardy.

Political uncertainties in the Middle East still hamper market resurgence. "There is growth in the region, but can you make money?" asked Stanley's Thomopulos. Bisher Jardaneh, CEO of a small regional Jordanian firm, Arabtech Jardaneh, noted a "cowboy market" lacking in local rules covering contracts, procurement and engineering standards.

"Everybody comes in from all over the world, and local forces can’t establish parity with the client and set standards to manage the risks," he said. "Industry can benefit from setting those rules" such as in risk management and anti-corruption, Jardaneh said.

Despite Canada's appeal for firms in energy markets, Ontario-based Golder CEO Conlin said the "competitive environment here is higher than in the U.S." Card of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin added that the strength of America's unconventional oil-and-gas market "will put a relative drag on the Canadian economy. We’ll see how the pipeline process goes to get oil out of Canada east and west. If it works, it will charge up the economy."

Firms pointed to the country's well-developed market for public-private partnerships as driving work, but noted the risks. "You need to pick projects carefuly, have the right partners and be on the winning team," said Scott Stewart, managing director of Canadian-based IBI Group. "You can't afford to do too many losing propositions."

CEOs generally noted difficulties in talent management, particularly high turnover still plaguing firms and younger employees from western countries less willing to travel.

Said Meinhardt Deputy CEO Shahzad: "After the Asian crisis, a lot of graduates went into banking. As the Asian economies grow, we can't find enough good people and that is constraining our growth. We can offshore part of the work but that doesn’t solve the problem entirely."

Aurecon's Hardy added: “Younger employees don’t have the money to buy in and—coupled with them not taking the longer career view—the [business] model is under pressure. We’re looking at that very hard.”