This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 1, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: WCT Bhd has walked away with two major awards at the 18th Malaysian Construction Industry Excellence Awards (MCIEA).

The company has taken home the Builder of the Year Award as well as the International Achievement Award for the Ministry of Interior Headquarters project in Wadi Al Sail, Qatar.

WCT has also taken home the Green Building Award (Non-Residential) for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry headquarters.

Other awards presented at the event held last Friday night included the Best Project Award — Building (Major) to IJM Construction Sdn Bhd for the Damansara Uptown Retail Centre (Starling Mall) and the International Achievement Award (Special Mention) to Eversendai Corp Bhd for various buildings such as the International Convention Exhibition Centre in India.

The Best Project Award (Infrastructure) — Small went to Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd for the Sunway Velocity Link Bridges, as well as the Best Project Award (Building) — Major (Special Mention) to Pembinaan Mitrajaya Sdn Bhd for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters in Putrajaya.

Awards for individuals were also given out, which saw Pembinaan Mitrajaya managing director Foo Chek Lee taking home the CEO of the Year Award, while Datuk Seri Srikandan Kanagainthiram, the managing director of KPK Quantity Surveyors (Semenanjung) Sdn Bhd, was awarded the “Promiment Player Award”.

Two Construction Leading Lady awards were given to Datuk Yeoh Soo Keng, executive director of YTL Corp Bhd, and Majidah Majid, managing director of Majidah Design Sdn Bhd.

Introduced by the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB) in 2000, MCIEA recognises individuals, organisations and projects that have contributed and demonstrated excellence in enhancing the image and performance of the construction industry.

This year it received 195 nominations for 22 awards under 10 categories.

The awards also intend to provide a platform for healthy competition among industry players in the quest for excellence by showcasing best practices in project implementation, CIDB chief executive Datuk Ahmad Asri Abdul Hamid said.

“Our construction industry has achieved a lot. So these awards essentially recognise the efforts made by various developers and to ensure that their success stories would inspire other developers to the same,” Ahmad Asri said at a press conference to announce the winners.

The guest of honour at the MCIEA 2018 award ceremony was Works Minister Baru Bian. Also present was Deputy Works Minister Mohd Anuar Tahir and CIDB chairman Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali.

Speaking on his group’s award win, WCT executive director Liang Kai Chong said he was very encouraged by the recognition, which he attributed to instilling best practices and hard work.

“We also learned a lot overseas and brought back the technology to Malaysia and were able to use the knowledge and skills to transform an old building such as Paradigm Mall Johor Bahru to become a modern shopping centre. We also applied the same experience to MyTown and also in Doha,” he said.