The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Government of Singapore. It was established on 1 April 1999 through the merger of the Construction Industry Development Board and the Building Control Division of the former Public Works Department.
The primary role of BCA is to develop and regulate Singapore’s building and construction industry.
BCA has put in place many schemes to help raise the construction industry’s skill levels and professionalism, design and construction capabilities, niche expertise, and the export of construction-related services. Some examples are the Construction Registration of Tradesmen (CoreTrade) Scheme to establish a core base of trade foremen and tradesmen,[23] and the BCA Academy of the Built Environment to develop a professional workforce and encourage the adoption of innovative technologies. BCA International, a wholly owned subsidiary formed by BCA, paves the way for local construction companies to offer a full scope of expertise and value-added services to assist overseas governments and clients in developing excellent built environments.
BCA also established a Construction Productivity Gallery and a Centre for Lean and Virtual Construction to guide and advise construction firms on the latest construction technologies and re-engineering processes to achieve time and labour savings. This is in line with Singapore’s national productivity drive, where BCA introduced a S$250-million Construction Productivity and Capability Fund (CPCF) in June 2010 to help the construction industry build up a skilled workforce, adopt more advanced construction technologies, and enhance building capability in niche areas.
BCA strongly promotes the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM), which allows professionals to work on a building project digitally before it is built. BCA targets to get 80 per cent of the industry to use BIM widely by 2015, and is working with the public sector to take the lead in driving greater BIM adoption.