Up for grabs: Incentive schemes ramped up for designers and builders

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has implemented the enhanced Buildability Framework which incorporates a new constructability appraisal system to provide greater impetus for designers and builders to improve their designs, and adopt labour saving construction methods.

The Ministry of National Development has also set up the Inter-Agency Buildings Innovation Panel (or BIP in short) to facilitate expedient multi-agency evaluation and approval of innovative construction methods, processes and materials that will improve construction productivity. Companies which require assistance in obtaining regulatory acceptance of their proposals can submit their application to the BIP Secretariat under BCA. The BIP Secretariat will then facilitate the regulatory acceptance from multiple government agencies, including BCA, LTA, NEA, PUB, URA, SCDF and MOM.

We also recognise that the initial switch to more buildable designs and labour-efficient construction technologies is likely to come with additional costs and investment. Hence, my Ministry has provided upfront financial assistance through the $250 million Construction Productivity and Capability Fund (or CPCF in short), which co-pays many of the construction technologies and methods covered under the revised Buildable Framework.

To all the designers and builders in the industry, I strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to leverage on the various incentive schemes under the CPCF and raise your productivity, while complying with the enhanced buildability requirements.