ABSTRACT
For more than 55 years, a plethora of seminal research reports and academic papers from individual researchers and organizations interested in the development and role of the construction industry have been presented. These pioneers of the construction industry and development and other interested researchers who have followed them have acknowledged that, across the world and within developed and developing countries, the construction sector has two main types of products. One is building, which is associated with housing, offices, hospitals, factories, and so on; the other is civil works involving the infrastructure for water supply, transport, irrigation, power generation, and so on. The enterprise part of the industry, especially the private sector is often subjected to excessive and unnecessary risks which are not conducive to the growth of a sound management capacity. In labour-abundant and capital-scarce economies, increased emphasis should be given to the use of appropriate construction technology.
