Building contractors not keen on small jobs

09/11/2006 The Star

THE reluctance to go to remote areas to build houses is one of the reasons why the People's Housing Scheme is facing delays.

Finance Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Seri Hilmi Yahaya said Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd was facing problems appointing contractors because they were not interested in building only a few houses in remote areas.

“Most contractors are not interested in building five or 10 houses in remote areas,” he said in reply to Eric Enchin Majimbun’s (BN – Sepanggar) during Question Time.

Hilmi said SPNB was looking at new measures to overcome the delay.

He added that as of Oct 31, SPNB had approved 6,954 applications for the scheme costing RM297.5mil.