Singapore's Success in Construction Regulation

No one can ever accuse the Singaporean Building and Construction Authority (BCA) - the main regulator of the construction process for under-regulating, nor for not ensuring the safety of its people. The country has no record of a building collapse. “Authorities in building control in Singapore do not need to catch us,” says Mr. Lee – CEO of a construction management company. Singapore is the world’s best practice in the Doing Business Dealing with licenses indicator.

There are three reasons to the success of Singaporean model. First reason, building control run by the BCA is based on delegating most of the control to private sector. Singaporean architects and engineers –referred as qualified professionals - are in charge of designing and oversight of construction projects. “It did not happen overnight and it took a crisis to build this trust,” says Mr Lee. The recession of 1985 in Singapore made the government turn to the private sector. Government opened various channels of consultation with all the players in the sector.

The new framework was driven by a search for creative solutions and measurement of performance. Two key institutions – Singapore Contractors Association and Singapore Institute of Architects - ensure the quality of services provided by qualified professionals.

The second reason for the success is the use of cutting edge technology. Before 1996 the construction applications had to be cleared separately by over a dozen agencies and required submission of 4 sets of drawings and design for each of them. Architects, engineers and government agencies devised mechanisms for saving time and cost. As a result it led to an e-submission system. Common language of reading the documents became crucial in making the building control authorities and qualified professionals understand each other quick and fast. Construction and Real Estate Network (CORENET) is a child of this reform initiative. It is run by the BCA since 2004 and serves as a mandatory electronic one stop shop for building permits. Qualified professionals submit all documents in the comfort of their offices to various agencies simultaneously. And there seems to be no limit. The BCA is now piloting a 3D E-Submission system in 2009 that will synchronize all plans and drawings.

The third reason is transparency. All steps, fees and instructions are freely available online. No confusion on that.