A DECADE OF CHANGE AND IMPROVEMENT? AN INDUSTRY VIEW OF CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT IN SINGAPORE UNDER CONSTRUCTION 21

misbe2011 Tracking Number 229

Keywords: Construction21, change, construction industry development, industry perspective, Singapore ABSTRACT Sir John Egan’s report on UK construction industry in 1998, Rethinking Construction, inspired a similar review in Singapore in 1999. The Construction 21 (C21) report has served as the blueprint for developing Singapore’s construction industry. A series of interviews was carried out in late 2009 to investigate the implementation of the C21 report during the ten-year period. The aim was to ascertain the achievements and challenges, and the consequent changes in practices and procedures in the industry. A representative cross section of samples was taken to include policy makers, clients, consultants, professional bodies, and trade associations. The general perception was that considerable progress had been attained in the development of construction industry, although the achievements had not as much as had been intended in the C21 report. A decade after the publication of the C21 report, although a range of progressive practices highlighted in C21 have been adopted in the industry, some of the initiatives in the recommendations in the report are still in progress and some have been launched but have not been pervasively used in the industry. Although Singapore has made much progress in developing its construction industry, the extent to which the industry reforms have fulfilled their original intentions is not completely clear. The impact of the initiatives on the way companies and practitioners work is also not clear. Hence, there is a need to revisit priorities and review the progress so far and map out general strategies for the future. E-MAIL: bdgofori@nus.edu.sg