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Growth and Transformation Scheme (GTS)

Overview

The Built Environment (BE) sector is made up of a large number of big, medium and small independent businesses. Unlike many other sectors, there are heavy inter-dependencies among different stakeholders along the value chain.

For example, developers work with consultants and builders on each project, who in turn rely on multiple tiers of contractors and sub-contractors for different aspects of the project. Designs put together by architects and engineers upstream will have downstream implications for contractors as well as facilities managers who build and maintain buildings. If coordination is not optimal, unnecessary and timely re-works will need to be carried out for the building to be constructed or maintained effectively.

The fragmented nature of the industry and complex contractual relationships also makes it challenging for the value chain to take a longer-term view in adopting innovation to developing capabilities and reap maximum business benefits through collaboration. 

One way which the industry can mitigate the challenges is by taking an alliance approach. This means all value chain partners coming together, to collectively develop a strong and capable supply chain - project after project - over a longer term, with the aim to enhance industry resilience and collaboration.

BCA has therefore introduced the Growth and Transformation Scheme (“GTS") to encourage and support the formation of strategic alliances among progressive developers, consultants, builders and sub-contractors across the entire value chain. Designed to go beyond project-specific support, GTS enables companies to reap the benefits of taking a longer-term view on business and workforce transformation. It will support partnership efforts between multiple companies, to strengthen technical capabilities as well as corporate, digital and innovation practices, to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes over a sustained period. This will ultimately enable holistic transformation for value chains in the Built Environment sector.

Scheme Details

The GTS is open for applications from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.

The application should be submitted by a Developer, and comprise a multi-year work plan (minimally three years) that details how the Developer and its strategic partners (i.e. Consultants, Main Contractors and Sub-Contractors) will work together to deepen business partnerships and build longer-term capabilities across two or more large-scale projects in these areas:

 

  1. Strategic Collaboration / Business Growth:
    • Proposals should demonstrate a clear plan for implementing collaborative contracting and project management. This could entail risk allocation that is appropriate for the nature of the project(s), putting in place structured processes for regular progress reporting, alignment of incentives for early notification of potential problems and dispute resolution, to encourage all parties to resolve differences expeditiously in service of shared project objectives. Drafting of collaborative contracts, training and hiring of professionals with collaborative contracting experience can be supported.
    • Proposals to strengthen business fundamentals will also be considered (e.g. consultancy for business strategy development and process re-engineering/redesigning etc.). These should go beyond basic business functions, such as accounting.
  2. Human Capital Development: Proposals should detail the workforce transformation initiatives to increase productivity, as well as attract and develop talent across the value chain. Companies are required to submit their Human Capital Diagnostic Tool[1] results and explain how proposed initiatives address gaps in their Human Capital practices.
  3. Productivity: Proposals should detail how more productive methods of construction will be implemented to achieve more than 30% (non-residential buildings) and 35% (residential buildings) increase in site productivity over 2010 levels in the projects. The initiatives can comprise process redesign initiatives, as well as robotics and automation solutions.
  4. Digitalisation: Proposals should demonstrate a holistic view of digital transformation across the value chain and entire development/building lifecycle. Initiatives could include the implementation of a Common Data Environment to be used by all project partners using common data standards, federation of project partners’ BIM models into a single view for collaboration, integration of key functions such as procurement and contract management, or the setup of core digital teams to oversee and guide the implementation of the digital transformation initiatives.
  5. Sustainability: New buildings are expected to achieve Green Mark 2021 Platinum Super Low Energy with Maintainability and Intelligence badges. This will yield at least 60% improvement in energy efficiency over the 2005 industry average. Proposals should also detail the initiatives to attain at least 20% manpower savings from process redesign and/or deployment of advanced technologies in Facilities Management.


[1] The Human Capital Diagnostic Tool ascertains the HR maturity levels of companies and identifies areas for improvement in 11 HR functions such as recruitment, performance management and employee engagement. For more information, please visit this link. Companies can also submit HR maturity assessments that are equivalent to the HCDT for BCA’s assessment (if available).

Funding

The grant supports up to 70% of qualifying costs on a reimbursement basis. Examples of qualifying costs that may be supported under the GTS include equipment, materials, software, testing and accreditation, licensing royalties for technology acquisition, intellectual property rights, training/course fees, and consultancies.

Eligibility

Applicants should meet the following criteria at the point of application:

  1. Companies are registered business entities in Singapore;
  2. The application should be led by a Developer and comprise at least one Consultant, one Main Contractor, and one Sub-Contractor; at least one company should be a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME);
  3. Be free of financial distress, and able to start and complete the stated initiatives;
  4. The Developer has undertaken and/or completed construction projects in Singapore in the last three years, readily adopting advanced construction, sustainability, and digital capabilities in its projects; and
  5. The Developer should have two or more building projects in the pipeline in the next two to three years.

Application

Interested applicants can submit an enquiry or express interest in applying for the scheme here.

Interested applicants should also note the following:

  1. The submission of application/enquiry does not automatically entitle the applicant to funding. All applications will be subject to evaluation and approval based on its merits. 
  2. Applicant(s) may be required to submit additional supporting documents to facilitate evaluation of the application. Application will only be processed provided that the complete relevant supporting documents are received.
  3. The applicant(s) must not have signed or confirmed a contract with or made payment to a supplier, vendor or third party in relation to the purchase/lease/subscription of the products or services before the application.
  4. BCA reserves the right to reject applications that do not fulfill the above-mentioned proposal/submission requirements and fail to demonstrate comprehensive changes to business practices across the group of companies and the development of best-in-class capabilities that are sustained across projects.
GTS FAQs 53.93kb

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