Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at HDB Awards Dinner 2022
Oct 11, 2022
A very good evening to everyone.
Members of the HDB Board
Mr Tan Meng Dui, CEO, HDB
Distinguished guests
Colleagues
Industry partners
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. I am very happy to be able to join you for this evening’s Awards Ceremony, and am very glad that so many of you are able to join us tonight. And to the consultants and contractors winning awards today – congratulations on your success! This is testament to your good work. Thank you for partnering us to deliver good, affordable homes for Singaporeans.
Collaboration with partners
2. As the Built Environment sector, you have gone through many ups and downs before. But the past two years have been some of the most challenging for everyone in the industry. The pandemic brought almost all construction work to a halt for the first time ever in our history. There were also manpower shortages, supply chain disruptions, sharp cost increases, significant uncertainty, and serious delays to projects.
3. Despite tremendous stress and strain, firms throughout the value chain – all of you here – came together to play your part. We see developers leaning forward to support their project partners, for instance by providing advance payments. Contractors made quick adjustments to implement safe management measures so that they could restart their projects. Consultants pitched in to coordinate with contractors and developers, to adjust processes in face of new requirements. The Government also provided support to the industry, including legislative intervention in contracts, mandating cost sharing, as well as the Construction Support Package, amongst others. I would like to take the opportunity this evening to thank all of you for keeping faith with us during those terrible, difficult times, and working together to weather the storm.
4. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the HDB who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to sustain our public housing programme over the past two years. Those of you helping to support the building programme, frontline staff addressing queries and processing applications, and every one of you doing your part to support HDB’s efforts.
5. During this period, many Singaporeans faced delays and uncertainty in collecting the keys to their new homes, which disrupted many of their life plans. We are deeply grateful that they have been largely very understanding and patient, even as we do our best to expedite the delivery of their homes without compromising safety and quality.
6. Today, as we seek to live with COVID, the Built Environment sector is gradually starting to see some signs of recovery. Construction activities have returned to close to pre-COVID levels, and BCA has projected a construction demand of between S$27 billion and S$32 billion this year, which is comparable to the demand pre-COVID.
7. Despite this, I know that our construction firms still continue to face significant headwinds and challenges. So I would like to assure you that the Government will continue to support our contractors and consultants, as we work together to build homes for Singaporeans.
8. For example, HDB will continue to help our contractors secure the manpower and material they need to complete their projects; supply them with more concreting materials, at protected prices, for local precast production and cast-in-situ operations; and extend the period of protection against steel price fluctuations.
9. This partnership with our industry partners is critical, especially as we seek to ramp up the construction and supply of BTO flats to meet Singaporeans’ housing needs. From about 17,000 flats in 2021 to 23,000 flats each this year and next year. In total, we are prepared to launch up to 100,000 flats from 2021 to 2025. This is a massive endeavour, equivalent to building one Bishan Town every year, for 5 consecutive years. We must therefore work together, innovate, in order to build public housing even more productively, in the face of significant challenges, cost pressures and inflation.
Construction productivity & resilience
10. The drive for construction productivity is not new to HDB. In fact, HDB is an early adopter of prefab technology. It first used precast components in construction in the 1980s. But we must keep striving to improve. And the COVID pandemic has accelerated these efforts.
11. For instance, to further reduce on-site manpower, HDB has fully adopted DfMA or Design for Manufacturing and Assembly last year. By shifting towards more automated off-site construction processes, we can build more productively and seek to reduce reliance on lower-skilled foreign manpower.
12. During the pandemic, HDB also formulated strategies to localise production of key precast components, and stockpile components supplied from overseas.
13. And when physical meetings and site visits were not possible due to public health restrictions, our consultants and contractors made good use of VDC or Virtual Design and Construction tools to plan, collaborate and optimise the sequence of construction activities.
14. Through Virtual Design and Construction, they were able to visualise the project virtually using BIM models. This reduced some abortive work during actual production and construction as they could address design issues upstream and plan construction works. VDC also enhanced productivity, as designers and contractors spend less time to interpret 2D design technical drawings. For all our BTO flats launched this year, we have made full use of Virtual Design and Construction.
15. HDB’s productivity drive has seen some good progress. Last year, despite the pandemic, HDB registered a 26.2% site productivity improvement, compared to 2010 levels. I encourage HDB and all your partners to press on with this effort and strive towards your 2030 goal of achieving site productivity improvement of 40%, compared to 2010 levels, by the end of this decade.
16. One of HDB’s partners who has done really well in terms of construction productivity – and there are many of them this evening – is Kay Lim Construction & Trading. To overcome pandemic constraints, they rolled out new measures and successfully delivered their projects on time. At Tampines GreenVerge, they adopted alternative construction methods, and involved drones for external elevation inspections, and mobile apps to conduct safety and work progress inspections. My congratulations to Kay Lim and all our award winners!
Construction Transformation Project
17. Going forward, HDB wants to continue to push the boundaries in public housing construction. We will do this on a few fronts. First, we will be launching HDB’s Construction Transformation Project, or CTP.
18. CTP is an upcoming HDB BTO project with about 2000 dwelling units, located in the latest waterfront precinct in Tengah. To be launched next month, the project is a collaboration between HDB, Obayashi (Singapore), and local consultancy partners ADDP Architects LLP, P&T Consultants Pte Ltd, J Roger Preston Ltd and Coen Design International Pte Ltd.
19. This project will seek to integrate the very latest construction processes and technologies across HDB’s development value chain to boost construction productivity. Now, we can achieve an improvement of 25% in site productivity, compared to other recently completed BTO projects. It will also seek to break new ground with the use of sustainable construction methods. We hope that through this collaboration, our local partners will learn from one another and from our international counterparts, as we continue to build capability in the sector.
20. These innovations also improve the living environment for residents. Building on its experience in 3D Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) components, HDB will be using a more efficient hybrid precast system, which combines the best aspects of 3D as well as 2D components. With this technology and approach, residential units in this project will be built using a flat plate system, which results in living spaces throughout the flat which are not encumbered by ceiling beams. Without the beams, residents will have greater flexibility to configure their flat layout and carry out renovations according to their needs.
Embracing Research & Innovation
21. Second, we will continue partnering the industry and our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to innovate and improve the way we build HDB public housing. We had announced that we will set aside close to $270 million under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 plan to support MND’s research objectives. I am happy to announce that HDB, together with MND and BCA, will be launching the first round of grant calls under the Cities of Tomorrow R&D Programme next month, in areas of advanced construction productivity, infrastructure resilience and facilities management.
22. We are interested in exploring a number of areas, for example, infrastructure to enable robotic assembly on construction sites to raise productivity; automated solutions to inspect and maintain external building facades to reduce reliance on manpower; and automated waste collection at older housing estates served by individual refuse systems and chutes, to improve residents’ quality of life living in the estate.
23. We welcome all to participate in these grant calls and we look forward to receiving your proposals.
24. Beyond our research efforts, we have also strengthened our efforts in tech and innovation. I am happy to share that HDB has deepened its partnership with Enterprise Singapore under the Cool Ideas Enterprise Programme.
25. The open-innovation programme will help firms in the built environment sector develop, adopt and commercialise innovative solutions that can address issues faced in public housing. We have supported 5 projects thus far and are seeking more productive construction solutions. I would like to encourage all companies to submit your ideas or solutions to HDB, and let us work together.
Conclusion
26. I have said a lot already, and I really do not want to stand between you and dinner. We have a busy agenda ahead of us, and working more closely to transform the way we work together to build those homes for Singaporeans.
27. And for all of you here involved with the HDB for many many years in public housing, you know that by partnering with us, you are not just involved in an infrastructure programme. You are building HDB homes for families, and helping build community space. You are building HDB flats for active aging. You are building public housing for preventive health. You are building public housing to push boundaries of sustainability. Eventually we will also build public housing to enable more Singaporeans, including persons with disabilities, to live independently. And you are building public housing to recognise the importance of biodiversity, of nature, and of heritage. So building homes, construction projects, yes; but we are building a social programme to keep Singapore and our society unique and strong, despite all the challenges we face ahead of us.
28. Once again, congratulations to the winners. All of you, thank you for your strong partnership with HDB and MND, and for keeping faith in us all these years. Thank you, and good evening.