Necessity and Trend for Contractors in Setting Up Safety, Quality and Environmental Management Systems in Macau

Abstract

Macau construction industry is lagging far behind its neighboring regions such as Hong Kong and Singapore in the implementation of various management systems. In these regions, the implementation of some common management systems, such as quality management system ISO9000, environmental management system ISO14000 and safety management system OHSAS18000, is considered as the basic tender requirement for Government projects. In Macau, a few local construction contractors started considering the implementation of these management systems only in the late 90s. Nevertheless, not until recent years, management systems have been receiving much attention in the construction industry. However, management systems still remains uncommon in tendering government projects. The requirement from the government and local clients is the main driving force for the local contractors. If there is no promotion and support of these management systems from the government, local contractors would not invest additional cost for the implementation. There is a need for Macau construction industry to be geared to the international standards and practice. Aside from meeting the requirement of the government and clients, the implementation of various management systems has the advantages of standardizing a company's internal documentation and raising labours' awareness of quality, environmental protection and safety through training. Before all these can be emerged, government’s push is the most important motivation factor in promoting the management systems. This study focuses on the recent development on the implementation of various management systems of contractors in Macau. A questionnaire-based survey for both local contractors and foreign-based contractors with branches established in Macau was conducted. It was found that local contractors mostly do not have any management systems while all foreign-based contractors have implemented the three management systems for quite a long time. In order to provide local contractors a more positive image towards the implementation of various management systems, recommendations are made for enhancing the popularity of the management systems in construction industry and for promoting benefits of management system that are experienced by foreign-based contractors. Bringing out an important insight that management systems has a positive long-term impact on the development of Macau construction industry.