Policy Address

Reduce Construction Costs

217. We will continue to streamline statutory procedures and administrative workflows. Relevant measures include:

1. Simplify works approval procedures, set clear performance pledges, and enhance co-ordination among relevant departments on vetting processes to expedite approval.

2. The Housing Department (HD) will set up a Project Facilitation Office to co-ordinate departments in expediting the completion of public housing projects. The Housing Bureau (HB) has implemented a new management approach, under which the target time for project completion is set to prompt the accelerated completion of various project stages.

3. Leverage technologies. Next year, the DEVB will launch a Project Cost Management Platform, establishing a market price database and applying AI technology to analyse, for example, past government project cost data, to ensure greater cost-effectiveness in future project designs. The HD has also adopted the self-developed Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled Systematic Approach to Foundation Design, which automatically generates designs to further reduce costs.