MBAM welcomes people-centric projects

MASTER Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) welcomed the government’s priority afforded to the construction industry but pointed out that the sector need workers.

Said its president Foo Chek Lee: “There should be a realistic understanding that construction industry needs workers if it were to complete the announced projects on time and within budget.

“We hope that the policy regards to the employment of workers can be looked at in a holistic manner so that the aspiration of both the public and the private sector can be satisfied,” said Foo.

The government is also boosting the construction sector with building new hospitals, roads and infrastructure upgrades for airports as well as rural housing.

It has proposed to building 240,600 units of government housing under various public housing plans, 10,000 units of Public Housing for police personnel.

Infrastructures include the Pan Borneo Highway, ECRL Project which connecting port Klang to Pengkalan Kubur, Sungai Buloh-Klang-Putrajaya MRT2 Project, Central Spine Road Project, upgrade of Pulau Pinang, Langkawi International Airports and airport upgrading works at Sultan Ismail Petra, Mukah and Sandakan.

Foo welcomed the various proposals but added MBAM also wishes to have more duty exemption, tax incentive, and tax investment allowance for the investment on heavy construction machineries and for industry players who adopt and implement the use of Industrialised Building System (IBS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM).

“Mechanisation is a way forward for us to reduce the industry dependency on the use of foreign labour and to increase productivity and safety in the industry.

“We hope that government will support the construction industry as the country is firm on mandating the adoption of IBS in the construction industry by 2020,” said Foo.