Speech by Minister Chee Hong Tat at The International Built Environment Week (IBEW) Industry and Awards Dinner 2025

Friends and partners from the Built Environment sector

Ladies and gentlemen

A very good evening to all of you. I am delighted to join all of you tonight at this dinner.

I want to start by congratulating all our award finalists.

Your achievements are a testament to your commitment and the spirit of excellence that defines our Built Environment (BE) sector.

This year, Singapore celebrates 60 years of independence.

Over these past decades, our BE sector has played a pivotal role in shaping our city.

All of you have contributed to developing key infrastructure and designed iconic landmarks that have put Singapore on the world map.

As we embark on the next phase of our nation’s urban transformation, we can expect many challenges, including an uncertain economic outlook. It is a changed world compared to what we have experienced before; we are also facing tighter resource constraints and increasingly complex project requirements.

Yet, we have many opportunities that lie ahead of us.

Construction demand is expected to remain strong in the coming years, ranging between $39 billion and $46 billion per year.

The major upcoming projects include HDB flats, new MRT lines, healthcare facilities and Changi Terminal 5, amongst others.

All of you who are present here today – you are an important partner for us, on this journey.

To seize opportunities amidst uncertainty, we must continue to create a pro-enterprise and pro-business environment, make good use of technology that can help transform our built environment, and invest in our people and deepen our capabilities.

Let me elaborate.

Enabling a Pro-Enterprise Business Environment

First, enabling a pro-enterprise business environment.

We must continually review our rules and processes to reduce business costs, and improve our efficiency and how we use  scarce resources.

This is part of improving our productivity and Singapore’s competitiveness.

In turn, this would help our businesses seize new opportunities and create good jobs for Singaporeans. 

CORENET X

One initiative that we have launched is CORENET X, our one-stop digital platform for building works regulatory submissions.

CORENET X will benefit the industry by providing:

• greater convenience as over 20 existing regulatory touchpoints across several agencies are consolidated into 3 key gateways;

• it will also provide clearer and more coordinated responses from regulators;

• and more importantly, time savings from faster regulatory approvals and cost savings from reduced abortive work.

Since its soft launch in 2023, over 50 projects involving 100 firms have used CORENET X.

97% can achieve time savings of up to 20% for regulatory approvals.

For some projects, this meant total time savings of up to two months.

We have also refined the platform based on your feedback, our users.

First, we have improved the user experience and reduced input errors.

For instance, users will only have to provide key project information once.

Based on the chosen project typology, the system will also automatically identify the appropriate forms for users, to minimise submission errors.

Second, we have improved processing time through parallel processing, where possible.

This includes allowing submissions to be made concurrently to the Design and Piling Gateways, as well as allowing concurrent applications for demolition and new erection works.

Currently, agencies only start processing the submissions upon verifying that required fees have been successfully received by all the agencies involved. This could take up to several days.

Following feedback from all of you, we will be adjusting our processes.

By the end of this year, agencies can start processing submissions immediately upon receiving proof of payment, such as a screenshot of payment or bank receipt, rather than to wait for verification.

These concurrent processes will allow faster approvals by up to 20 to 60 days, depending on project complexity.

I would like to thank everyone who has provided feedback. My colleagues and I would like to hear more from you  on how we can further improve the platform. It is still a work-in-progress and with your inputs and feedback, we hope to work together with you to continue to improve the platform and make CORENET X even better.

From 1 October 2025, CORENET X submissions will be mandatory for all new projects with GFA of at least 30,000 square metres. However, I understand that some of our companies still do not have the opportunity to use CORENET X.

We want as many companies as possible to benefit from CORENET X.  I have decided to extend the qualifying period for the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) remission timeline extension for CORENET X projects by nine more months, to give the industry more time to adapt and to encourage more companies to come on board.  

This means that we will extend the qualifying period for projects with GFA of at least 30,000 square metres to 30 September 2026.

We will similarly extend the qualifying period to 30 September 2027 for smaller projects; so the smaller projects will only be mandatory one year later.

For companies who are already familiar with CORENET X because you have participated in the process, I am sure you will also be happy with the ABSD remission timeline extension.

Take it as a bonus benefit for our early adopters, in recognition of your support to work together with the MND family to fine-tune our systems and processes.

Going forward, we are committed to continue to work with industry partners to foster a more pro-business environment for our companies, our enterprises,  to help you to reduce costs and save time, and to support new innovations and business models.

Nurturing Innovations, Scaling Impact

Beyond creating a pro-enterprise business environment, we must leverage on innovations to transform the built environment.

As a city-state with limited resources, innovation and creativity have been essential in helping us overcome our constraints.

Take for instance, one of the winners of the BCA Design and Engineering Safety Award this year, Engineers Chua Tong Seng and Michelle Lew.

Through careful tunnelling simulations and a purpose-built cutter, they overcame the challenges of tunnelling through soft waterlogged soil on reclaimed land, to successfully deliver the Thomson East Coast Line, Marina Bay Station project.

Not only was this project completed safely, the existing train service that ran through the area was not affected.

Congratulations and well done to the team!

Looking ahead, we must continue to harness innovative construction technologies to overcome our constraints.

This includes scaling up and speeding up the deployment of artificial intelligence.  I was happy to see, just now during the exhibition tour, that our companies and students are making good use of AI to improve their solutions, and their workflows and processes. We must make good use of  robotics and automation, including drones and the use of robots, and we must continue to look for sustainable construction materials, as well as other advanced technologies.

As we embrace these technologies, I am sure we will also discover new opportunities for our startups and our technology companies. Some will be startups that are formed out of our IHLs – because we work with our lecturers and researchers in the IHLs. When we come across new and better ways of doing things, we can also form a company and these companies can then work with the industry and Government agencies to test bed the solutions. If they work well, we scale them up, and we can help companies to take their solutions and products to further, including bringing them overseas.

• One such example is Genios Private Limited, which is a new spin-off from NUS.

• Genios was established to commercialise a newly developed Intelligent Lifting Frame system, which has significantly improved the precision, safety and efficiency of hoisting operations during the construction of HDB flats.

The Government has also launched various initiatives to support innovation.

For example, BCA’s Accelerate-to-Market Programme brings together innovators and BE companies to fast-track innovations from lab to market.

There is also the Built Environment Innovation Hub which provides a collaborative space to testbed cutting-edge technologies and solutions that can address industry needs and pain points.

Many of our BE firms have also made significant investments in innovation.

For example, Kajima has set up its first overseas R&D and innovation hub, the GEAR, in Singapore.

The GEAR hosts five corporate R&D labs that partner our universities and startups to develop and commercialise state-of-the-art technologies, in areas such as construction robotics and underground space creation.

These are excellent moves that have been made but I believe there is more that we can do together. There is still scope, there is still space, and there is still potential for us to do so  and for our innovations to make greater impact.

For example, we could work with key public and private stakeholders to facilitate test-bedding and promote the translation of ideas on a larger scale.

For technologies that are proven to be effective and commercially viable, including overseas robotics solutions, we could accelerate the adoption through asset sharing or leasing arrangements, to help companies, especially our SMEs, defray the initial capital outlay of adoption.

For local companies with promising innovations, we want to help you test-bed your solutions in Singapore and unlock overseas markets.

As we develop these ideas further, I would like to welcome everyone to share your ideas, your suggestions, your feedback and work with us,  partner with us. We must be prepared to take some risks because if we are not prepared to venture out of our comfort zone and try something different, we will not discover new ways of doing things and new solutions. Taking risks is something that is easier said than done because if you fail, sometimes there are costs to bear. If we design our systems and processes properly, it will not be completely safe, but it can be a safe fail so that even when we fail, it will be in a controlled environment where the downside can be managed. We can do this through test beds, we can do this through sand boxes. My colleagues and I are prepared to work with you, to design some of these arrangements to achieve a win-win outcome for the government and more importantly for you. The important thing is we must not become satisfied with what we currently have. We must not feel that what we currently have is good enough. We can see many good solutions from overseas and other sectors. If we can bring some of these good practices, and technologies to our sector and scale them up, I think it will make a difference in what we want to do.

As I was talking to some of the young people earlier,  I felt very encouraged that our young people are attracted to the new opportunities in the Built Environment sector. They feel that they can make a difference in this sector. They can have a chance to work with new technologies, they can have a chance to improve our living environment, to improve on environmental sustainability, to make a difference to the world. This is an important motivation to be able to bring more young people to our sector. The government and  industry leaders must work together, to create these opportunities so that we can to inspire our young,  motivate them, and support them. So that’s why I want to end my speech, by talking about people.

Investing in our People, Deepening our Capabilities

We need to continue investing in our people, and deepen our capabilities.

Our building projects and infrastructure have become increasingly sophisticated. The environment that we are in is also evolving. Our industry professionals will need to acquire new and relevant skills to stay at the forefront.

Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants

This is why we set up the Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants last September.

This is co-led by my colleague Minister Indranee Rajah and Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong Group.

Since September last year, the Taskforce has engaged more than 400 stakeholders, including in-service professionals, students, service buyers and many more.

Our stakeholders have shared with us their concerns, such as in the areas of pay and career development, as well as the challenges that our firms faced when competing for projects, investing in technology and attracting talents.

The Taskforce will release its final recommendations later this week.

I look forward to your support for the recommendations.

Because we know that our BE sector can only be strong when every component, every part of the ecosystem is strong. People lie at the heart of what we want to do. We need to make sure that we have good people who are willing to join us and to stay in the industry.

Introducing a new Firm-Based Regulatory Regime

As an industry, we also need firms with the right expertise to deliver safer and higher quality infrastructure for Singaporeans.

Today, building owners need to appoint Qualified Persons (QPs) and Specialist Professional Engineers (SPEs) to certify that building works and equipment are safe and are built according to approved plans.

But as projects grow more complex, the range of professional competencies required have grown significantly.

For example, when we build higher up and deeper underground, the team of QPs supporting a project must possess a range of complementary expertise, such as advanced structural and geotechnical competencies.

As we deploy more advanced technologies, such as lift and escalator systems equipped with new safety controls, our SPEs similarly need to be trained in more areas.

To keep pace with the demands of more complex projects and new technological developments, and to ensure safety, we will introduce a new licensing regime for firms that provide certification services for lifts and escalators, as well as supervision services for large-scale building works.

From 2027, building owners and developers must engage licensed firms to certify applicable lifts and escalators designed for public use; and

From 2028, developers and builders must engage licensed firms to supervise building works with project value exceeding $75 million.

To obtain the licence to provide these services, firms will need to possess certain prerequisite capabilities, such as having sufficiently qualified professionals.

We hope that this move will bring us in line with international best practices and ensure that we continue to uphold quality and safety standards.

Conclusion

Let me conclude my speech. I have briefly shared how the BE sector can continue to seize opportunities amidst uncertainty, and how we can remain competitive, resilient, and ready for the future:

• By fostering a pro-enterprise business environment,

• By working together to leverage on innovation and technology, and

• Importantly, by investing in our people and deepening our capabilities.

But our city, at the end of the day, is only as strong as our people who build it. The hard work of each and every one of you in the industry has built not only our skyline, not only our landscape, but also the foundations for Singapore’s continued growth and success.

I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you, as we shape a sustainable, liveable, and world-class Singapore not just for this generation, but for many generations to come.

Thank you, and I wish everyone a wonderful evening ahead.