PUBLISHED ONJuly 17, 2026 10:43 AMBYSean LerSingapore's built environment sector must continue to innovate and take "some calculated risks" in the process, said National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat on Friday (July 17).
"We must adopt a 'can do' spirit and be willing to try new and better ways of doing things," he said at ConTech@Punggol Digital District, a construction robotics and automation exhibition organised by JTC and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
"Take some calculated risks. Not every attempt will succeed, but if we don’t try, our chances of success will be zero."
Setbacks should not discourage companies from pushing boundaries, but instead serve as a learning moment for the sector to refine their approach, he added.
"This is how entrepreneurs approach their ventures – don’t be afraid to try, don’t be scared of failures and if you fail, don’t give up, try again until you succeed."
Noting Singapore's pipeline of major development projects, including HDB BTOs, Long Island at East Coast, and Changi Airport Terminal 5, Chee urged the built environment sector to continue transforming the way it builds and plans.
"With new technologies like autonomous robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we must continue to push boundaries, so that we can build better, faster and more sustainably."
Chee cited the example of robotics company Weibuild and construction firm MCC Singapore, which faced multiple failures before they succeeded in creating advanced autonomous skimming robots that now deliver a 30 per cent improvement in productivity over manual methods.
To support such efforts, Chee announced that the Government will continue sharing the risks of innovation through pilots and sandboxes under the Built Environment Innovation Hub (BEIH).
According to BCA and JTC, the BEIH has been used to testbed and trial more than 170 solutions since its launch in 2023, of which about 60 are robotics and automation solutions.
"The sandboxes allow us to try new ideas without the fear of a large systemic failure. We can fail safely, and try again, and when the prototype works well, we can scale up its application," said Chee.
He also announced that BCA will make it "easier and less costly" for companies to innovate by waiving space rental fees for BEIH technology sandboxes for two years from this July.
BCA and JTC said in a joint statement that the waiver will be offered to teams trialling solutions that improve productivity such as robotics and automation technologies.
"This waiver can be extended to other areas if there is demand for other types of technologies," they added.
Chee also announced that JTC will be launching its innovative procurement partnerships (IPP) tenders for technologies such as construction inspection robots and remote-controlled tower cranes in the coming months.
The IPP is a new Government procurement approach that reduces administrative barriers for pilot testing, while allowing companies to subsequently scale up their innovative solutions for commercial deployment.
Under this approach, awarded tenderers whose pilots are successful can scale up their innovations to other JTC projects, without the need to go through new tenders.
"In this way, not only does the IPP fund experimentation, it also provides a clearer deployment pathway for innovative SMEs and startups to scale up their operations and move towards commercial success," he explained.
Rules and regulations must also keep pace with innovation and technology adoption in the sector, Chee said.
He cited the example of smart hoist deployments at construction sites, which are automated and do not require operators to be stationed inside them.
"MOM and BCA have reviewed and decided to remove the requirement for companies to station operators within smart hoists. This has been applied to a first batch of projects," Chee said.
"The end in mind is for the agencies to work together with the industry to fine-tune our rules and requirements, so that we can help companies to save even more time, money and manpower."
He also committed to work with local companies to help achieve time, money and manpower savings.
"If there is an outdated rule creating unnecessary red tape, please tell us. Let my colleagues and I know where the bottlenecks are, so that we can work with you to clear the path and make things better," he added.
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