Don't Rely On Govt Projects, CIDB Tells Small Contractors

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- Small contractors should beef up their competitiveness and not rely solely on government projects in order to survive, says the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Chief Executive Officer Ir Ahmad 'Asri Abdul Hamid said they should position themselves to participate in residential projects instead of just social-related projects as the government's need for projects such as hospitals and schools has diminished. "Seven to eight years ago, the proportion of public and private projects used to be 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. Last year, 83 per cent of the projects were implemented by the private sector and only 17 per cent by the government," he told the Malaysia Statistics Conference (MyStats) 2016 here Tuesday. Ahmad 'Asri was a panellist at one of the sessions at the one-day conference jointly organised by the Department of Statistic Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia (Malaysia's Central Bank) and the Malaysia Institute of Statistics. Themed 'Strengthening Statistical Usage for Decisions and Innovation', the fourth edition of MyStats provided a platform for participants to discuss and promote greater usage of statistics in decision making and innovation. Ahmad 'Asri added that small contractors must accept the reality and build up their competitiveness or join forces with others and form a consortium in order to be in a better position when bidding for projects. On another development, he suggested that the relevant parties study if the influx of Chinese investments in the country's construction sector really benefits the locals. Ahmad 'Asri claimed that Chinese companies would often bring in their own workers and materials and not employ as many locals as compared with other foreign investors. -- BERNAMA