ALL housing projects with at least 50 per cent IBS (Industrialised Building Systems) content will be exempted from the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) construction levy of 0.125 per cent this year.

Except for projects costing less than RM500, 000 and low cost, low medium cost, medium cost houses that enjoy zero levy, all projects were previously imposed the levy.

In a statement, CIDB said it took this initiative following the Budget 2005 speech last September, in which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the exemption.

IBS is a widely used construction technique in developed countries, where building components are factory-made, on- or off-site, and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site works.

"This initiative is in line with the Government's policy of modernising the Malaysian construction industry, where for too long, the building sector has been over dependent on cheap foreign workers performing labour intensive construction activities," CIDB chief executive Datuk Ir. Hamzah Hasan said.

He said the IBS-related reduction is part of CIDB's IBS road map for the construction industry in the next five years, to modernise building techniques, and reduce if not eliminate, the associated problems in quality of works, delays, wastage, and the threat of social problems arising from illegal migrant workers.

He said a joint IBS seminar is also being organised between CIDB Malaysia and the UK Trade and Investment, which will be held from January 18-19 2005, called "Innovation in Construction Through IBS -Malaysia and UK Perspectives" .