Its minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin, said this was in line with the National Housing Policy launched last year for the ministry to move towards the IBS construction system.

“It’s time the IBS system that we have been talking about over the last decade is realised.

“We will promote the system because it is cheaper, faster and less labour intensive.

“This is to make our property development and housing more sustainable,” she said when officiating the MGB Sany (M) IBS Sdn Bhd’s precast concrete plant here today.

Zuraida said the ministry was also looking at high technology construction and state of the art designs.

“We want to empower the community so they know the value of the property they are staying in.

“That’s why we have the national community policy to encourage the community to look after and manage the financial upkeep of their properties.

“Having good housing is meaningless if the community doesn’t appreciate the value of their properties,” she said.

Zuraida said about 19,000 units of houses could be built a year using the IBS system.

“With the additional IBS plant, we can increase that by another 4,000 a year,” she said.

Present were MGB Berhad group managing director Lim Hock San and Sany Malaysia managing director Ma Rong Quan.