Strengthening Resilience of the Built Environment Sector for Next Bound of Industry Transformation

Thursday, 2 March 2023

-          Continued support for construction firms to adopt digital solutions and invest in innovative and productive equipment.

-           Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) regime to help existing buildings with poor energy performance improve.

-          Enable value chain transformation through the Growth and Transformation Scheme (GTS).

COVID-19 caused major disruptions to Singapore’s Built Environment (BE) sector; but it also provided the opportunity for the sector to step up the adoption of digital and innovative technologies and level up its manpower capabilities. As construction demand stabilises, the Government will continue to work closely with the industry to strengthen the sector’s resilience against future challenges and the larger threat of climate change. To this end, BCA has worked with the industry to launch the refreshed Built Environment Industry Transformation Map (ITM) last year, which sets out our ambition to drive greater productivity, digitalisation, and sustainability in the BE sector.

Stepping up Efforts in Productivity

2.            First, the Government will continue to support firms, including Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), to adopt productive technologies.

3.            A new tranche of the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) will be available from April 2023 to March 2026, totalling $21 million. Firms in the BE sector can strengthen their digital capabilities and plug into the Integrated Digital Delivery ecosystem through adopting pre-approved digital solutions. More than 800 SMEs have benefitted from the previous tranche of the PSG, which ran from April 2020 to January 2023.

4.            Firms can expect more pre-approved digital solutions under this second tranche, with a greater emphasis on training and capability building. SMEs can benefit from training provided by solution providers as part of the pre-approved solution packages. [Refer to Annex A]

5.            Second, the Investment Allowance Scheme (IAS) will be extended for another 5 years (until December 2028) to further support firms’ investments in productive and innovative equipment for construction operations. With the extension of the IAS, we encourage firms to invest in the latest productive systems and re-design processes to improve productivity across multiple tasks for greater impact. [Refer to Annex B]

6.            Third, the Government is also furthering our efforts in digitalisation and upfront planning and design through initiatives such as CORENET X, which will be launched by end 2023. Users will be onboarded in phases and features will be progressively rolled out. CORENET X will transform the current regulatory approval workflow for development projects by consolidating more than 20 approval touchpoints into three key approval gateways. This is expected to generate time and cost savings for the BE sector. [Refer to Annex C]

Accelerating our transition to a low-carbon built environment

7.            In the area of sustainability, BCA will double down on efforts to decarbonise the built environment, especially existing buildings with poor energy performance which are not subject to minimum energy performance standards. To reduce emissions from this group of buildings, BCA will introduce the Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) regime by the end of 2024.

8.            The MEI regime will apply to the most energy intensive commercial buildings, healthcare facilities, sports and recreation centres and institutional buildings with a Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 5,000 m² and above.

9.            Buildings that are subject to the MEI will be required to undergo energy audits and implement measures to improve their energy use intensity (EUI)¹. Building owners will be required to maintain the EUI improvement over a minimum period, which will reduce the overall environmental impact from building operations and help them enjoy cost savings from lower energy use. BCA is currently conducting industry and public engagements on the MEI and will provide more details when ready.

10.         To complement the MEI, BCA will also publish the energy performance data of individual buildings for more building types, such as healthcare facilities, sport and recreation centres and institutional buildings. This will allow building owners to determine their energy performance relative to other buildings of the same typology.  [Refer to Annex D]

Enabling Value Chain Transformation

11.         In the BE sector, stakeholders across the value chain are closely linked, and the action of one party will directly affect another. Thus the BE ITM emphasises the importance of an integrated, value chain approach towards transformation.

12.         One way to enable value chain transformation is through BCA’s Growth and Transformation Scheme (GTS). The Government has set aside $90 million under this scheme. This is to help establish alliances between developers, builders, consultants, and other stakeholders, and to help them collaborate across multiple projects, build stronger relationships, and develop capabilities together for the longer term. The Government will co-fund up to 70% of qualifying costs for alliances for the coming financial year, in areas including equipment, software and training.

13.         The first two alliances led by CapitaLand and UOL have finalised their initiatives for funding under the GTS. A key focus for CapitaLand and its partners, including Woh Hup and Threesixty, is collaborative contracting. CapitaLand and its partners will be amongst the first to pilot this contracting approach for the private sector for its upcoming developments. UOL and its partners, including United Tec, will focus on developing new capabilities to enhance construction productivity. UOL and its partners plan to adopt robots for labour-intensive tasks, adopt more advanced prefabrication technologies, as well as prefabricate more components, such as Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing systems. [Refer to Annex E]

Annex A: Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG)

Annex B: Investment Allowance Scheme (IAS)

Annex C: CORENET X

Annex D: Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) regime

Annex E: Growth and Transformation Scheme (GTS)

Download PDF Version of the Media Release here
Download Annexes here

¹EUI measures the annual energy consumption of a building over GFA (in kWh / m²).