‘BCISM officially open next month’

KUCHING: The Building Cost Information Services Malaysia (BCISM), a joint-venture between Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM), will be officially open next month.

Works Minister Baru Bian said BCISM will be the centralised data bank for construction cost data which will provide credible and reliable cost data to increase productivity and enhance value.

“BCISM will be able to provide cost information service to the industry and offer advisory on construction economics to the government for policy making,” he said at the Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors (PAQS) Congress held at a leading hotel here yesterday.

Apart from that, Baru said RISM will also be launching its latest edition of Standard Method of Measurement (SMM) by the end of the year.

“This new standard method of measurement will be replacing the current SMM2 published in 2001 and will be BIMready (Building Information Modelling). This is exciting news for it will complement the construction industry’s effort to improve productivity through digitalisation,” he remarked.

He pointed out that construction industry players need to have the foresight to adopt new technologies, methodologies and ways of thinking in order to continue to thrive in this brave new world.

“The future of construction promises to be challenging yet holds many exciting opportunities. In fact, the future is already here and I urge all of us here to embrace the emerging technologies in order to fully benefit from it.”

Baru presented the keynote address at the congress, which was officiated by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.

Around 500 participants from over 20 countries participated in the two-day congress which was preceded by four sub-committee meetings on BIM, sustainability, accreditation and research with technical and tourism visits around Kuching.