Five-year plan to turn construction industry into world's best

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government on Thursday unveiled a five-year plan to transform the construction industry by 2020 in areas of quality, safety and professionalism, environmental sustainability, productivity and internationalisation.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (pic) said the Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) encompasses 18 initiatives.

"Each of the four strategic thrust seeks to transform and improve public and international image of the industry," he said at the launching of the International Construction Week 2015 here on Thursday.

One of the main push of the plan is the adoption of the Quality Assesment System in Construction (QLASSIC) to measure the quality of workmanship in the industry.

"The CITP targets to make QLASSIC a mandatory element in all government projects by 2018," he said.

On safety and health, Najib said more stringent requirements will be introduced to ensure accidents and fatalities in the industry are significantly reduced.

He noted that this will ensure that contractors bidding for projects include estimated costs to meet safety and health requirement.

On environment and sustainability, Najib said a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Construction will be established in line with making Malaysia a model for the industry, particular in Asean.

Another area of improvement is increasing  productivity as Malaysia still lagged behind countries such as Australia, China and the US.

"This is something we need to change and towards this end, the government intiatives will focus on three key drivers for productivity, namely workforce, technology and process," he added.

Najib said that Malaysia was still dependant on low skilled foreign labour and to address this a specialist apprenticeship programme will be initiated.

The construction industry achieved growth of 11.1% under the 10th Malaysia Plan and recorded RM157 bil worth of projects as of 2014.