Malaysia’s Building & Construction Industry is Ripe for Disruption

31 July 2019

ORANGEBEAM Berhad

By Dato’ Faris Yahaya, Group Chief Executive Officer

Construction & Property Development Conference 2019 | 30 April 2019 | ParkRoyal Hotel

The Industry is Ripe for Disruption

While things are looking up for the building and construction industry with the recent revival of the ECRL and soon Bandar Malaysia projects, experts continue to predict a slowdown in the construction sector, with 4.9 percent of growth in 2019. With tighter government budgets, increasingly competitive bidding, rise of building materials and property overhand, construction players are not having it easy.

Amidst today’s volatile market landscape, it’s high time for players to gear up and disrupt the industry by tackling necessary existing challenges that are long-due: meeting construction timelines, cost overruns, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of site workers and also reducing the environmental impact of materials used in construction.

Within our reach, opportunities are vast. The Malaysian Government is driving the adoption of technology within the brick and mortar industry to enable greater growth, improve efficiencies and stay in the line with current demands and global construction trends while also executing institutional reforms and advocating for better practices in the industry such as open tenders, safe and equitable work practices and the implementation of advanced design software and systems.

Disruption is Vital for Productivity and Growth

For example, to further encourage industry players to be highly productive, environmentally sustainable, while not losing focus on safety and quality standards, the Government introduced the Malaysia’s Construction Industry Transformation Programme 2016 – 2020 (CITP), designed to transform the local construction industry to stand on par with globally competitive players.

Industry players need to understand the disruptions outlined in the future scenarios is a wake-up call and use the identified key actions as a foundation for companies to prepare and shape a prosperous future which allows them to fulfil their role in promoting economic growth, social progress and environmental responsibility.

According to the IMF Regional Economic Outlook: Asia Pacific, 2018, among the world’s top 10 economies with the largest ICT to GDP ratio, seven are in Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Besides cost efficiencies, technological progress can bring enormous benefits by boosting productivity and growth and creating new jobs.

Breakthroughs in technology also enables a more carbon-efficient growth path that helps decrease risks to endangered environments and lowers levels of environmental stress. Besides improving quality of life, fostering equitable growth and protecting the environment, disruption also helps reduce inequality and promote inclusivity within societies, as reported by WEF Digital Transformation Initiative with Accenture, May 2018.

Collaboration Across the Value Chain

Players need to fully understand that in order to embrace disruption and prepare for the future, these steps must be taken:

• Disruption requires collaborative ecosystem partnerships: Disruption requires industry players, regulators, government stakeholders and end-users to come together and play their part. It is encouraging to see recent reports from CIDB on the steady growth in the use of IBS among private construction companies. This is an example of a great collaborative move towards the disruption of the industry.
• Greater awareness & education is required to drive partnerships: While some think that innovative technologies can bring significant benefits, others are concerned or sceptical about the impact of technological advances, and thus do not adopt technologies as and when they become available. Our contractors may have transformed the way they do business with BIM, Digital IBS and relevant technologies; however, we need the support of our industry players within the entire value chain to embrace technology as well.
• Disruption is not just the infusion of technology, but a cultural change and a transformation of mindsets. It requires future proofing of business processes and transforming traditional brick-and mortar set-up, including creating new digital business models or digital offerings, and reinventing and equipping the workforce with tools to succeed.

As part of ORANGEBEAM’s own transformation journey, we are ready to collaborate with key industry players and will continue to advocate the need to adopt and infuse the right level of innovation and technologies across the ecosystem together to achieve the desired impact to the industry.