Global initiatives on IBS

Throughout the world, there has been several initiatives to change the construction industry into a more productive and efficient industry. As can be seen in table 1, several countries in the world including Malaysia has been aggressively putting up programmes to further enhance the construction sector.

Among the global leaders in offsite construction are notably Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. This is due to the fact that in these countries, the construction season is short and therefore speed is critical in their construction industry.

Other developed countries such as United Kingdom and United States are fast catching up in the off-site construction. It is estimated that the modular market in the United Kingdom will grow by 60% to €4.6 billion by the year 2009 (source: Internet: http://www.offsiteconstruction.ie/). Meanwhile in the US, one in six new houses is a prefab, which is estimated to be about 400,000 units a year (source: Modular Muddle”. Internet: http://society.guardian.co.uk/ )