KUALA LUMPUR: The Housing and Local Government Ministry is reviewing the Uniform Building By-Laws including provisions on structural, constructional and fire requirements, in an effort to set higher quality and safety standards of buildings.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said with amendment to the by-laws, input from the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and new development in the engineering world, buildings would be delivered with better quality.

"The self regulation rule will be applied as much as possible since engineer as submitting person or principal submitting person as the case may be will be taking full responsibility of building delivery," he said when opening the 51st IEM annual dinner and awards night 2010 here tonight.

Kong said the ministry encouraged Malaysian construction players to employ the use of Industrialised Building System (IBS) to design and construct buildings as part of the Green Technology initiative.

"Thus, building designers such as architects and engineers are urged to use Modular Coordination (MC) in their construction methods as a means to facilitate and accelerate the use of IBS," he said, adding that this would enable standard components to be adopted on major parts of construction.

Kong said by using the MC, it would only save labour on site but also provide better quality end products.

For the nation, he said it would mean less reliance on foreign labour as the site labour would be reduced under the IBS.

"At this juncture, I would like to urge all the engineering professionals to steer towards adopting IBS and Green Technology as a way forward," he said.

He also urged engineers to keep up to date with changing technologies to meet future challenges.

"Technologies are merging at a faster rate and we need to be ready to continuously learn, adapt and update in order to accomplish and excel," he added.

Earlier, IEM president Prof Datuk Dr Chuah Hean Teik said the IEM would continue to channel engineering, technical advice and services to federal and state government agencies. - Bernama
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