INGENIEUR
compliance to more stringent quality requirements
and getting international certifications such as
OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001, all in addition to
raising productivity and market share. By 2020,
our target is to transform Malaysia's construction
industry to be at par with the very best of ASEAN
competitors.
There has been much publicity on IBS which
is also one of the items in the Construction
Industry Road Map. Have we achieved the
target? What are the issues and challenges?
The level of IBS adoption today is not something
we are fully satisfied with. An important part of
CITP will be to further drive IBS adoption in the
industry. The main challenge for IBS adoption
is the inadequate take-up; costs of many IBS
components are not yet at the level that will move
the industry; while IBS suppliers generally have
not achieved scalable demand. CITP aims to break
this vicious cycle. Firstly, we will build scalable
demand for key IBS components leveraging public
projects with a different contracting approach.
Secondly, we will implement various economic
mechanism s to help lower the net cost of IBS
adoption for the industry. Thirdly, we plan to
require IBS adoption in the private sector to
further increase the scale, and effectively lower
construction cost for the whole industry in the
longer term.
The presence of foreign contractors especially
from China is increasing in numbers and size?
What is the impact on local contractors and
what can we learn from them?
Competition is inevitable. We are opening up our
economy and international players will invest and
compete in our local market. What is important
is that we learn from our competitors and
continue to grow our competitiveness against
these international players. Under CITP, we plan
to have programmes to facilitate and strengthen
our Malaysian companies including the SMEs. We
are implementing apprenticeship programmes to
help transfer skills of international players to local
counterparts as well as training programmes
developed in partnership with world-class
players in construction and its vertical industries
to further build the skill set and expertise of
Malaysian companies.
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VOL 62 APRIL – JUNE 2015
VOL 55 JUNE 2013
From CIDB’s database, the number of Malaysian
contractors venturing overseas has dropped
drastically since 2010. Why do you think this is
so, and how do we encourage our contractors to
venture overseas?
One of the reasons is that the domestic market
has had enough demand to serve Malaysian
construction companies. However, it is critical
that Malaysian companies continue to grow their
presence in the international market. Otherwise,
many will face challenging times when the local
construction industry slows down.
As part of CITP, we will be supporting such
expansion overseas especially in markets which
we will prioritise where Malaysian companies will
have opportunities to grow. We are also developing
financing mechanisms and hope to work with
partners such as EXIM bank.
With the formation of the Malaysian Export
Council in December 2014, is there any role for
CIDB in promoting our construction industry
overseas?
Yes, CIDB hopes to have CITP as part of the
agenda under the Malaysian Export Council.
Many incidences of work site accidents were
reported over the last few years. What is CIDB’s
role in mitigating such incidences which do not
augur well for the local construction industry?
CIDB will be partnering with various agencies
to tackle safety related issues. First, we are
enhancing our safety training curriculum in
partnership with world-class players in the field.
The courses will be interactive, and offered
in the languages and context that all workers
can understand and relate to. Secondly, we are
increasing the number of trained and accredited
safety and health officers, safety site supervisors,
and working with DOSH to also increase safety
inspectors to provide the right level of guidance
on construction sites. Furthermore, we are
enhancing the training curriculum of these safety
professionals to better cater to the specific needs
of construction sites. In addition, we will be
working with key regulators to encourage industry
players to include safety compliance as an
important aspect of their operations. CIDB will also
be launching promotion campaigns to inculcate
safety as the overriding priority in everyone's mind.