Reports by MARTIN CARVALHO, RAHIMY RAHIM and TARRENCE TAN

       THE construction industry suffered RM42bil in losses since the start of the pandemic, says Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

       He said that Covid-19 and the movement control order had affected the construction industry, with growth shrinking by 19.4% in 2020, and 10.4% in the first quarter in 2021.

       “However, the figures rose to 40.3% in the second quarter of this year,” he said when replying a question raised by Datuk Ahmad Nazlan Idris (BN-Jerantut) yesterday.

       Fadillah noted the construction industry lost a total of RM18bil during the third MCO period between June and September this year.

       “The remaining losses of RM24bil were for the MCO period between March and July last year,” he added.

       He said the ministry held several engagement sessions with stakeholders in the industry to identify issues for the losses.

       Among them, he said, were the rise in cost of building materials and labour, shortage of workforce, strict enforcement of standard operating procedure and workers’ housing.

       To minimise the impact on contractors, Fadillah said the ministry proposed to the Finance Ministry that it revived the variation of price clause for specific items for government projects.

       Also initiated, he added, was the construction workers vaccination programme.

       He said contractors involved with government projects were also allowed to include the cost of SOP compliance as part of preliminary work.

       Fadillah also noted that RM400mil was channelled to assist G1 to G4 contractors involved with road maintenance work to help ease their burden.

       He added that workers sent for courses organised by the Construction Industry Development Board would not be charged any course fees.

       He said that a 50% discount on processing fees for foreign workers was also extended to those who needed to obtain green cards.