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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is committed to joining forces with the construction industry to improve both the build and maintenance qualities of public housing.
At the "Quality Public Housing Construction and Maintenance Awards 2011" held today (December 3), the HA and other industry associations conferred their recognition on outstanding contractors, supervisors, project teams and frontline workers for their effort and significant achievement in construction and maintenance of public housing.
"Success is a journey, not a destination. We should embrace changes and innovation." said Mr DW Pescod, Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing (Housing) when officiating at the awards presentation ceremony.
He noted that as the largest housing developer in Hong Kong, the HA had invested a lot of effort on R&D and the quality improvement of the construction industry as a whole. The hard work of the teams has won the HA a total of 15 awards in the area of design, environmental protection, information technology and site safety in the past year. These innovative technologies not only help enhance work efficiency and the quality of building construction and maintenance, but also contribute to environmental protection through cutting down on material consumption and carbon emission.
Mr Pescod called upon the joint effort of the industry and the HA to turn the pursuit of quality construction into the industry's common practices by continuously developing new breakthroughs in technologies and workflow with emphasis on occupational safety and health. He said that "ZERO incident" at workplace was the goal, and the message of "Safety First" must be communicated to staff at every level. He also extended congratulations to awarded contractors, project teams and frontline workers for their best practices, which will provide the motivation for others to also provide quality services and quality homes for the public.
The "Quality Public Housing Construction and Maintenance Awards" are classified into two categories - New Works Projects and Maintenance & Improvement Projects. The judging panel consists of representatives from the HA and other co-organisers. Winning individuals or teams were assessed by their performance in terms of work quality, workmanship, environmental protection, occupational safety and health, ethical integrity, partnership and customer service.
This year's awardees included 52 contractors and sub-contractors, 5 outstanding projects, 5 best site safety projects, 4 outstanding project teams, 10 outstanding contractor's supervisor, 12 outstanding foremen, 24 outstanding workers, 4 outstanding ambassadors and 3 outstanding building maintenance workers.
The co-organising partners of this year are: Hong Kong Construction Association Ltd, Hong Kong Federation of Electrical & Mechanical Contractors Ltd., Hong Kong Construction Sub-Contractors Association, Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, Construction Site Workers General Union, Hong Kong & Kowloon Electrical Engineering & Appliances Trade Workers Union, Labour Department, Occupational Safety & Health Council, Construction Industry Council and Vocational Training Council.
Industry practitioners and the public are welcome to browse the successful stories of the awarded companies later on the HA/HD website¡]www.housingauthority.gov.hk¡^
Ends/Saturday, December 3, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:33
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