Special Feature
New CEO at the helm of CIDB B & I met up with Ir Ahmad‘ Asri Abdul Hamid, newly appointed CEO of CIDB Malaysia, to catch up on recent industry accomplishments and issues.
COMPLETE WITH HAND-OVER ceremony, there has been a changing of the guard quite recently( on 1 March, to be exact) at the Construction Industry Development Board( CIDB) with Ir Ahmad‘ Asri Abdul Hamid now at the helm as its newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer. In a career path similar to that of his predecessor Dato’ Sri Ir Dr Judin Abdul Karim who retired in December 2015, Ir Ahmad‘ Asri has chalked up more than three decades in public service, half of which with Jabatan Kerja Raya( Public Works Department), as Mechanical Engineer, and the other with CIDB, latterly as Senior General Manager, Management Sector. Other portfolios in CIDB held by Ir Ahmad‘ Asri, as General Manager, include the International Division, the Corporate Division and Development Sector.
In between was a three-year stint as President of the Professional Services Development Corporation( PSDC), engaged in the development of capability / capacity in facing challenges of liberalisation and exportability of its services and setting up of an information hub for professional companies. In early March, B & I called on Ir Ahmad‘ Asri for a candid chat on some issues in the construction industry:
B & I: Firstly, our heartiest congratulations on your recent appointment. On the threshold of both the 11th Malaysia Plan & CITP, what positive factors, do you reckon, will drive and ensure the success of these two programmes?
AAAH: One of the positive factors, for Construction Industry Transformation Plan( CITP) in particular, is the fact that the industry is coming forward and working together with us; like I mentioned earlier, the preparation of CITP was done with the industry and Government agencies and other stakeholders. To-date, we have pledges from 121 industry players in support of CITP. Everybody knows about CITP, the PM, the Ministry and the industry itself so we have to implement it. Now it is a matter of getting full and complete support from the industry,
so to speak.
Secondly, I see that in the changes we have been promoting, the take-up has been slow but the good thing is that a lot of mega projects are being implemented. These are bringing in expertise and they are coming forward to us to basically get accredited and get recognised. A good example is the MRT project where MMC Gamuda has come to say‘ why don’ t we work together in training, why don’ t we adopt say OSHA 18000 for safety?’ Projects of this magnitude bring in a lot of foreign expertise and best practices are emphasised, which, eventually, will cascade down to smaller projects and transform the industry.
B & I: Conversely, given the set time frame for these two programmes, what would be some of the challenges, or negative factors, that CIDB and the industry has to face and overcome to ensure success?
AAAH: From the perspective mentioned earlier, the challengers would be the flip side of the coin, in that smaller-scale companies that are so used to conventional methods don’ t want to change and to change them is not easy. The other challenge, basically, perception- for example, we are promoting
Ir Ahmad‘ Asri Abdul Hamid, CEO of CIDB Malaysia.
building sustainability, MyCREST and all that but the perception is that the cost will be higher. These are negative factors we need to overcome. As for IBS( Industrialised Building System), a lot of people admit that the cost is about the same so we are getting there. Even to go green, for example, the perception is that it is going to cost more money but if you look at the life cycle of the project or building, then it is definitely cheaper in the long run
B & I: In its stewardship of the Malaysian construction industry, CIDB has never failed to collaborate with and‘ learn from the best’, e. g., recently, with the Construction Industry Council, Hong Kong. Who else has CIDB signed such alliances with and for what specific purposes?
AAAH: Actually we have signed more than a hundred collaborations; one of these, signed recently, was with the British Institute of Facility Management( BIFM) because we are now introducing the idea here. The Government has asked that we start registering FM companies and make it compulsory for them to have FM-competent persons and the necessary modules and standards,
For safety, we also signed with Landlease,
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