IBS to boost productivity, safety and competitiveness

KUALA LUMPUR (May 11): The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) believed productivity, safety and competitiveness among industry players will be enhanced with the greater adoption of Industrialised Building Systems (IBS).

“The industry’s dependency on foreign workers could be further reduced with the adoption of technology such as IBS... At the same time, IBS will contribute towards improving productivity, safety, and competitiveness of the industry players, which in turn translates into economic gains and growth,” said MIDA deputy CEO Datuk Phang Ah Tong (pictured) at the “Dialogue on Enhancing the Implementation of Industrialised Building Systems (IBS) in Malaysia” event held at MIDA’s headquarters in KL Sentral today

The half-day event focused on nurturing the local construction players towards global competitiveness through the adoption of new and relevant technology such as IBS. Some 150 delegates related to the construction industry attended the event.

MIDA provides both fiscal and non-fiscal support to encourage companies to embrace innovation and technology such as IBS. Companies that manufacture IBS components are eligible to apply for tax incentives from MIDA in the form of either pioneer status or investment tax allowance.

“The main incentives under the Promotion of Investment Act (PIA) 1986 are pioneer status for income tax exemption of 70% of statutory income for five years or investment tax allowance of 60% of qualifying capital expenditure incurred within a period of five years,” said Phang.

Phang added that the government has promoted IBS since 1999, but the implementation levels remained low compared with some countries such as Germany, the UK, the US and Australia.

“It has been pointed out that [the] fragmented and disconnected construction supply chain is the leading cause of [a] limited uptake to IBS… This problem calls for an improvement in communication and integration among the relevant IBS players such as designer, contractors and manufacturers, more so at the design stage,” he said. “The outlook for IBS implementation in Malaysia is bright but much work is still needed from the government to convince the contractors, manufacturers and suppliers to adopt IBS construction.”

IBS represents the adoption of construction industrialisation and the use of prefabricated components in building construction.