SPEECH BY MINISTER CHEE HONG TAT AT OFFICIAL OPENING OF SCAL CONSTRUCTION HUB

Good morning. I am very happy to join you today on this auspicious occasion, for the official opening of the new SCAL headquarters. Let me first congratulate SCAL on this important milestone. This new facility is more than just a physical space – it represents SCAL’s commitment to advancing Singapore's Built Environment sector through productivity, innovation, and collaboration.

Established in 1937, SCAL has been an invaluable industry partner in raising our industry standards and fostering professional development of our Built Environment professionals. This new headquarters stands as a testament to SCAL's vision for the future of construction in Singapore. As we look ahead, the need for a productive and competitive Built Environment sector has become even more critical.

The demand outlook for Singapore's construction sector remains strong. I shared recently that total construction demand is expected to reach between $47 billion and $53 billion in nominal terms this year. In the medium term, we expect sustained demand averaging between $39 billion to $46 billion annually, from 2027 to 2030.

This strong pipeline is driven by major infrastructure developments, such as Changi Airport’s Terminal 5, the Marina Bay Sands expansion, the New Tengah General & Community Hospital, and the Downtown Line 2 extension. Of course, we also continue to build many HDB flats for our people. These projects provide not just business for our Built Environment firms but represent our shared commitment to building a more livable and vibrant home for all Singaporeans.

To deliver on these ambitious building plans, we must continue to push ahead with the next phase of the BE sector’s transformation. Let me share a few of our priorities going forward.

#1: Accelerating Productivity

First, we need to accelerate productivity efforts across the entire building lifecycle to achieve greater savings in time, costs, and manpower, and to overcome our resource constraints.

Over the years, we have made good progress. For example, together with the industry, we have streamlined regulations and increased efficiency. Through projects like CORENET X, we think that this is something that is going to help transform the way we work, and it could achieve an overall time savings of around 20% throughout the project timeline.

We have also successfully scaled up the adoption of more productive technologies. In 2025, up to 70% of new developments adopted Integrated Digital Delivery and Design for Manufacturing and Assembly. The Government will continue to support the adoption of pre-fabricated components in our construction industry.

The construction landscape continues to evolve rapidly – digital construction techniques, sustainable building practices, advanced materials, and automated systems are just some examples of how we are reshaping how we build.

To keep pace, firms need to continuously innovate and invest in developing new capabilities, and the Government will continue to provide support for our companies and our workers to adopt digital solutions and advanced equipment. For example, the Productivity Solutions Grant, or PSG, supports firms in their implementation of technology solutions. With support from PSG, Sanwah Construction Pte Ltd achieved 30% savings in inspection and modelling tasks through the adoption of a mobile and web inspection solution to manage Permits-To-Work digitally, and a 3D Modelling software to coordinate project information across stakeholders.

The Built Environment Technology and Capability Grant help our Built Environment firms to develop new technology, enterprise and manpower capabilities to achieve deeper transformation.

To speed up the translation of new innovations, the Built Environment Accelerate to Market Programme (BEAMP) brings innovators and BE stakeholders together to prototype the latest technologies and address industry pain points.

We must also deepen our collaborative partnerships to harness greater synergies, reduce inefficiencies and amplify our collective impact. I am a firm believer that if we want to achieve more sustained and bigger transformative change in our industry, we cannot just do this with single or individual firms one at a time. Because you may implement a technology in your company, or the Government may implement one scheme. If that is the only thing we do in isolation, the ecosystem as a whole will not achieve the maximum impact. To achieve the maximum impact and to sustain that impact, we have to work together as an ecosystem and make sure that the different elements within the ecosystem amplify one another, reinforce one another, achieve synergies at a system level. Then I think we can achieve that greater impact on a sustained basis.

So one of the things we hope to be able to encourage greater adoption is Collaborative Contracting. We believe this can provide mechanisms for project parties to resolve issues upstream, share risks and savings, and better manage and save costs, save time and save manpower.

We have made good progress so far, with more than 20 ongoing and upcoming projects across the public and private sectors adopting collaborative contracting for construction or facilities management, and with more in the pipeline. Our plan is to scale up the adoption of collaborative contracting in Singapore - make that a more pervasive industry norm in Singapore. And we want to encourage more government agencies, as well as private sector developers and firms to come on board.

On our part, the Government will also continue to work closely with the Built Environment sector to review our policies, rules and processes, to reduce regulatory compliance burden, support innovative proposals, and help businesses to save time and save costs. For instance, builders currently submit monthly productivity data manually using Excel templates through BCA’s Electronic Productivity Submission System. It is called Productivity Submission System but the way the data is submitted is not very productive.

From May 2026, BCA will automate such submissions using SGBuildex, which is a data exchange platform. Contractors can set up the linkages between their worksite biometric authentication systems and SGBuildex, to eliminate the need for manual submissions that currently take up to half a day per month of an employee’s time. This is time that can be put to more productive use. This integrated system also uses a unified and simplified data structure for greater data accuracy. So not only does this save time, we also cut down on unnecessary unintended human errors.

The platform is currently in its voluntary phase, and I would like to encourage everyone to onboard this way of submitting the data for smoother operations before we look at mandatory implementation for new projects starting from May 2026.

That is the first thing we need to focus on.

#2: People at the Heart of the BE Sector Transformation

The second thing is we need to continue to upskill our people, because our people are at the heart of our Built Environment sector transformation.

To support more firms’ transformation efforts, the BCA Academy and SCAL Academy have made available many courses, from advanced construction techniques to green building technologies, digital construction and more.

I am glad that some of our Built Environment firms have invested in your people and you have also reaped significant benefits. For example, Wee Hur Construction and DLM Pte Ltd have achieved up to 75% in time savings by redesigning the jobs of their Project Managers and Engineers to utilise digital platforms such as Autodesk Construction Cloud and OpenSpace.

This job redesign initiative has also led to a greater sense of fulfilment and purpose in the work they do. I think this is important, to be able to attract and retain talent, including our young people to join the Built Environment sector.

With real-time data and automated dashboards, the project staff no longer need to perform manual tracking and they can work more effectively and also collaboratively.

Beyond technical skills, it is also important for firms to recognise the importance of human resource management, and this is one area which I think the industry as a whole, we can learn from one another what are the best practices. I am glad that SCAL has organised the SCAL-HR Forum with support from the Construction Industry Joint Committee (CIJC) for the first time in November last year.

With this expanded facility that we are launching today, I am sure SCAL Academy will continue to play a key role in taking our Built Environment sector to greater heights.

#3 Charting the Next Lap Together

Together with industry partners like SCAL, we have made significant progress in transforming the Built Environment sector. We must press on with our transformation efforts to help companies, and my aim is to save three things: save costs, save time, save manpower. And this will require the collective efforts of stakeholders along the whole Built Environment value chain working together to unlock new opportunities.

We need to help one another to do this. I cannot do this alone. The Government will not be able to do this alone. The industry, you will not be able to do this by yourself, because some of the changes require the government to change our policies and our rules. So the best way to do this is to bring the government agencies and our industry partners together. So we do this together as a partnership. That was how we did the equities market review at MAS. MAS, SGX, together with the industry stakeholders, we came together, identified where are the areas for improvement, where are the moves that we can make, then we move. This is what I hope to do too, for the Built Environment sector, and this is important, because if we continue business as usual, we can see ourselves hitting the resource constraints boundaries really soon. In fact maybe in some areas, we have already reached there. So we really need to work together through our collective efforts to innovate, collaborate, and push for a more productive sector.

So to achieve this goal, this morning I would like to announce that we will set up an Action Team to improve Built Environment productivity. I will chair the Action Team to give this initiative focus and emphasis. My colleague, MOS Alvin Tan, will assist me as Deputy Chair. The Action Team will also comprise representatives from government agencies and the industry, including developers, consultants, contractors, facility managers and academics. And SCAL President Mr Lee Kay Chai is a member of the Action Team. I would like to thank Kay Chai for his support and look forward to his contributions.

The team will focus on three key areas. First, accelerating enterprise transformation through scaling-up the adoption of productive technologies and progressive practices. Second, reviewing our regulatory approach to reduce regulatory compliance burden, support innovation, as well as to improve procurement and contracting practices. Finally, supporting an enabling ecosystem through measures that can reap system-level synergies and address industry-wide challenges.

I intentionally crafted the Terms of Reference more broadly, without being too prescriptive and too specific, because I do not want to zoom in too quickly at this stage in a very prescriptive manner to say we do “ABC”. I think it is important for us to have a chance to listen to the industry feedback and your views, your ideas on where are these specific pain points and areas of improvements that we can do better. So the terms of reference are intentionally crafted to be broader, to be higher level, but the intent as described by the name of the Team, is action. So we will look at actionable things that we can do; we want to translate ideas into action, so that it can benefit you, benefit the industry.

To make an impact, the Action Team will need to work on challenging issues facing the industry, and relook at how we plan, manage and grow Singapore’s Built Environment industry. Now I want to be upfront, this is not going to be easy. In fact, we may or may not succeed. Some of the areas that we try, we may or may not succeed. I’m sure friends from the industry would agree with me that despite those risks of not succeeding, we must be prepared to collectively take some calculated risks together. We may not succeed when we try, because this is not like buying durians, there is no “bao jiak”. But if we don’t try, our chances of success will be zero. So we must try.

We will continue to push on with this. We will convene two sub-committees to deep dive into the issues and develop actionable recommendations. I am grateful to have the support of two industry veterans, Mr Neil Yong from Woh Hup and Mr Khor Eng Leong of Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Singapore. They have agreed to co-chair the Enterprise Transformation Sub-Committee, and the Ecosystem and Regulatory Review Sub-Committee respectively, together with my colleagues, CE of BCA Mr Kelvin Wong, and DS Planning of MND, Mr Cham Dao Song.

In the coming months, the Action Team will engage widely to hear the views and feedback from our industry stakeholders. We would like to welcome everyone to please share your ideas and your suggestions with the Action Team. And please be candid, no need to sugarcoat, no need to be polite, no need to “paiseh”. If there are some areas that you think we really need to do better, there are some pain points that we need to address, there are some rules that are outdated and need to be updated, please tell us. We look forward to your strong support as we chart the future of our Built Environment sector together.

Please allow me to conclude my speech.

The opportunities ahead are significant, but they also require us to work together with shared purpose, focused determination and clear direction on how we want to proceed.

So let us continue to work together to ensure that Singapore's Built Environment sector can continue to drive excellence in innovation, efficiency, and quality. And to be able to attract and retain younger talents to join our industry.

This is a challenging task, but with support from everyone, I am confident that our efforts can make a difference. The foundation we build today will shape our future Singapore for decades to come.

I would like to end by wishing everyone good health, happiness, and success in the Year of the Horse. 祝大家马到功成，龙马精神. And I wish for that for our review efforts, we continue to 马不停蹄，快马加鞭. Thank you very much.