THE processing time for planning approvals under the Building Information Modelling (BIM) submission system has been cut from 14 days to about 48 hours.
Works Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Azman Ibrahim said the ministry’s MyBIM submission platform had delivered the faster turnaround and it planned to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) to speed things up further.
He cited a recent visit with a property developer where a similar AI-enabled system was able to review a submission and flag gaps to the local authority in under an hour.
Azman also said the Pan Borneo Sarawak highway project was an example of BIM’s impact, saying its use in 2016 had helped resolve more than 3,000 drawing clashes before construction began.
Failing to catch those errors would have delayed the project by about 10 years, and that resolving them through BIM had saved the government RM157mil at the time.
Azman was speaking to reporters after the launch of Malaysia BIM Day 2026 in Putrajaya.
Present were Works Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh.
Azman also received the Ikon BIM Kebangsaan award from Nanta and Yeoh at Putrajaya Corporation Complex.
Nanta said digital transformation in the construction industry was no longer a choice but a necessity and a national agenda to improve productivity, efficiency and the quality of project delivery.
“BIM needs to grow from being just a technology to a work culture that supports more integrated, efficient and sustainable planning, construction and asset management.
“AI, automation, data analytics and new technologies must be harnessed to strengthen decision-making, reduce wastage and improve project performance,” he said.
Nanta said the success of this transformation would require an integrated digital ecosystem, a skilled workforce and close cooperation between the government, industry, professional bodies, academia and technology providers, adding that Malaysia’s construction industry needed to shift from project-centric to an asset-centric approach.
Yeoh said a BIM Lab set up in Putrajaya would be managed by Putrajaya Corporation (PPj).
She hopes Putrajaya will become the first city in the country to fully adopt the system in its urban planning.
“Putrajaya was a planned city. Our challenge now is to ensure it continues to develop as a smarter, more efficient city that is responsive to the people’s needs.
“BIM gives us the ability not only to plan what we build, but also to better manage the city’s assets throughout their life cycle,” she said.
Two initiatives were also launched at the event: Hala Tuju BIM Putrajaya 2050, a long-term roadmap for BIM adoption in the city’s planning and asset management, and myBIM Satellite Putrajaya, a training platform for government employees and industry players.
The ministry said it had received RM83.3mil this year to establish 16 BIM Labs across all Public Works Department (JKR) offices nationwide. The rollout is expected to be completed by December.
Projects worth RM10mil and above are already required to implement BIM under existing policy.
Yeoh said technology adoption should not be an end in itself.
“Technology is not the end goal. What matters is how we use it to make better decisions, reduce wastage, improve efficiency and ultimately deliver better services to the people,” she said.
