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Increasing IBS acceptance in construction

The use of the Industrialised Building System (IBS) has been increasingly accepted in the construction sector in the country, according to Datuk Elias Ismail, general manager (technology development sector) of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia.

“The implementation of IBS has been enforced by the government through a Ministry of Finance circular and supported by the IBS Roadmap 2011-2015 provided by CIDB,” he said in a speech read out during the opening of the “Challenges of Implementing IBS in Rural Sarawak” forum on 2 November 2018, as reported by The Borneo Post.

“The circular had resulted in the IBS usage level for government projects increasing to 81 per cent in 2017, compared to only 20 per cent in 2008.”

The government has also come out with a policy requiring the use of IBS for private sector projects worth RM50 million and above.

This policy would be enforced by the local authorities in Peninsular Malaysia, through the Permission to Plan or Building Plan Approvals, which will be re-enforced by 2020. This will lead to an increase in the demand and use of IBS in both government and private sectors and will require more competent IBS contractors.

The mechanisation and methods of modern construction of the IBS system enable potential problems in the project to be detected from the design stage to completion, he added.

Works Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Seri Zohari Akob has also mentioned that the ministry will focus on promoting IBS among private companies by encouraging them to bundle their projects to achieve economies of scale.

“In a simulation we did, we needed about 17,800 units of property to get economies of scale in order to build an IBS factory,” he said, in a report by The Edge Markets.

Construction projects from the private sector make up 80 per cent of the total construction value, Zohari said, hence, the need to encourage the sector to adopt IBS. — Construction+ Online