KUALA LUMPUR: Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) plans to make its Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC) mandatory by 2020.
CIDB is banking on support from big industry players and the growing awareness of the assessment system.
“We are proposing for it be included in the 11th Malaysian Plan (2016-2020) that will be launched next year,” said CIDB development sector senior general manager Ahmad Asri Abdul Hamid at the QLASSIC workshop, here, Monday.
Asri said the plan was to have developers include the QLASSIC score when they apply for the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) for their projects.
“The score will be submitted together with their application for CCC, so that once the project has been given a CCC, at least the QLASSIC score will be known,” he said.
CIDB are also in talks with the 1Malaysia People’s Housing Scheme (PR1MA) to evaluate its affordable housing projects.
“It is still at the discussion stage,” he said.
On residential property projects, Asri said about 30 per cent of the current evaluated projects had scored below the average of 70 per cent.
He attributed it to the lack of awareness by the public on QLASSIC.
Asri said QLASSIC could act as a catalyst to transform Malaysia’s construction industry, which is currently registering an impressive double-digit growth, of which residential projects make up about 30 per cent to the total.
“There is room for improvement and that is why we are pushing to make QLASSIC on par with Singapore’s CONQUAS.”
Singapore’s Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS) standard has reached an average score of 97 per cent while the highest QLASSIC score ever achieved is 87 per cent.
On the possibility of property prices going up after the assessment is made mandatory, Asri said it should not happen as quality itself is part of the whole construction plan and should not impact the price of the properties.