INGENIEUR
Dato’ Sri Judin sharing a light moment with BEM Board Member Ir. Prem Kumar.
policies. One of these is the issue of taxation
on construction machinery which contributes to
higher costs and deters the use of Industrialised
Building System (IBS). He notes that there are
talks with the Ministry of International Trade and
Industry to iron out this dichotomy.
Will there be any new pieces of legislation?
Dato’ Sri Judin believes that the Occupational
Safety and Health Act 1994 and the Uniform
Building By-Law 1984 already spell out the
penalties for many offences. However, he points
out that the standard of housing for foreign
construction workers is generally deplorable.
As such, he reveals that there will be legal
amendments to incorporate minimum standards
of housing for foreign workers.
Similar to the CIMP, the new transformation
programme also focuses on productivity,
safety and quality improvements. However,
there is added emphasis on sustainability and
internationalisation.
In the area of productivity, Dato’ Sri Judin
reveals that the Malaysian Productivity Corporation
(MPC) will work with CIDB in a move to set up
a Single Submission Authority to deal with all
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VOL 55 JUNE 2013
channels for construction projects. If realised, this
would be a giant leap in speed and productivity for
the construction industry.
According to Dato’ Sri Judin, there is a push
from the private sector towards quality assurance.
He states that big developers and consultants are
keen to differentiate themselves using quality. As
such, the Qlassic scheme, a tool to assess and
track workmanship for buildings, proposed by
CIDB will get wider support. “If developers want to
ensure it happens, it will happen,” he stresses. In
time to come, this scoring system is expected to
be used to rate developers and be t ied to Sales
& Purchase agreements. This may serve as a
catalyst for other developers and contractors to
climb up the quality ladder.
Benchmarking would be difficult without uniform
standards. In this context, Dato’ Sri Judin reveals
that CIDB is working towards a National Standard
Specification which will streamline standards of
workmanship in all states in the country.
Aligning with Malaysia’s aim of being
a developed nation by 2020,
Malaysian
construction industry players need to up their ante
to be ‘world-class’. The CITP thus incorporates