Date: 2–4 November 2017
Company: Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM)
The inaugural MBAM OneBuild construction exhibition and conference, held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, brought construction industry players under one roof to help generate new relationships and exchange of ideas, as well as to showcase the latest innovations in industrialised building systems (IBS), concrete technology, heavy machinery, and construction safety and health.
Themed Technology Advancement with Stakeholder Collaboration, the conference saw industry experts sharing their know-how, with keynote addresses and forums on modular construction, stakeholders’ collaboration, and challenges faced by Malaysian contractors.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, MBAM president Foo Chek Lee called for the reduction of import duties for heavy machinery used to make IBS components. “Heavy machinery used in the construction industry has high import duties ranging between 20 and 30 per cent,” he said. This leads to increase in prices and, subsequently, decline in sales for local suppliers who import these heavy machineries.
“We believe more large-scale implementation of the IBS would reduce our dependency on unskilled manual foreign labour and increase productivity and safety at the construction sites,” he added.
Also present were Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) chairman Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali, CIDB senior general manager Datuk Elias Ismail, MBAM immediate past president Datuk Matthew Tee Kai Woon, and MBAM secretary-general
Dennis Tan Soo Huang.
