At the annual award ceremony of the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education Grace Fu urged the construction industry to explore two new growth areas: complex civil engineering works and sustainable development.
Fu believed that the local industry can handle more complex public works. She expected civil engineering works to become more complex and urged local developers to train their workforce and improve technological resources as they face this new challenge.
“I encourage the industry to capitalize on the potential pipeline of works that includes about $50 billion of civil engineering projects in the next 10 years, to recruit and train staff in the relevant areas of expertise, invest in technology and build capability to take on such complex projects,” Fu said.
Fu also identified sustainable development as another growth area for the construction industry. The government recently introduced a sustainable development directive with the aim of improving energy efficiency. It calls for the reduction of Singapore’s overall energy intensity by 35 percent by 2030, with the 2005 level as the benchmark. In line with this agenda, BCA wants that 80% of the nation’s buildings have environmental certifications by 2030.
This year, BCA conferred 151 sustainability awards, up from 97 last year. Around 103 buildings got green certifications under the Green Mark scheme, up from 69 last year. John Keung, chief executive of BCA, said that the significant increase in the number of green building awards attested to the success of the sustainability programs of the agency and the growing environmental awareness across the industry.