ABSTRACT
The first few post-independence decades of Malaysia’s economy were characterised by rapid progress. Initially mainly dependent on rubber and tin for exports, from the 1980s onwards, the country’s economy diversified away from the primary sector of natural resources towards the secondary sector of manufacturing. In the context of construction, certain public construction contracts have been exclusively reserved for bumiputera contractors only. Out of the public jobs that are awarded to non-bumiputera contractors, at least 30% of the works must be set aside for bumiputera subcontractors. In the years immediately preceding the launch of the Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP), the contribution of the construction sector to gross domestic product (GDP) had remained at about 3% and was predicted to remain at that level due to a construction growth rate that was lower than that of the national economy.
