The ‘Oscars of Hong Kong’s construction industry’, the CIC Outstanding Contractor Award 2024 is open for application

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Contractors are pivotal to Hong Kong’s construction sector, coordinating with stakeholders and overseeing project progress and quality. The CIC Outstanding Contractor Award recognises these contractors and encourages companies to revitalise the profession through professionalisation and tech-driven innovation. This revitalisation enhances efficiency, quality, safety, and sustainability, according to Ir Thomas Ho, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council (CIC), at the 2024 Award launching ceremony.

The Award’s core value is knowledge sharing and best practice that upskills the workforce. Since its 2021 inception, numerous online sharing sessions featuring winning companies have been organised to foster a culture of excellence in the sector, said Mr. Alex Ho, Director – Industry Development of the CIC.

The CIC Outstanding Contractor Award 2024 includes several categories and awards. The “Major Contractor” category – for companies included in Group C on the List of Public Works Contractors, handling contracts valued at or over HK$400 million – features awards such as “Outstanding Contractor Award”, “Corporate Innovation Award”, “Professionalisation Award”, “Revitalisation Award”, “Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Award”, and the newly established “Integrity Management Award”. Only major contractors who are subscriber of the “Construction Industry Integrity Charter 2.0” are eligible for the “Integrity Management Award”.

Other categories include “Contractor”, “Specialist Contractor”, and the new “RMAA Contractor” (repair, maintenance, alteration and addition). Awards under these categories include “Outstanding Contractor Award”, “Corporate Innovation Award”, “Professionalisation Award”, “Revitalisation Award”, and “ESG Award”.

The RMAA contractor category has been  added as their projects account for around one third of all projects by value. With the expansion of contractor categories and broadened eligibility, the CIC aims to encourage more companies to compete. Another goal for this year is to award subcontractors, who play a crucial role in frontline operations, and recognise role models among them, said Thomas Ho.

A panel of judges will evaluate applicants based on criteria including safety culture, corporate innovation, professionalism, revitalisation, ESG, and integrity management in the major contractor category.

The CIC has long committed substantial resources to revitalise the sector, ensuring its robustness and energy. Alex Ho noted that the CIC encourages companies to develop innovative strategies to attract new talents to the industry, including the adoption of tech-driven innovation.

Thomas Ho added that the Award is held every three years, giving companies time to analyse and develop strategies and systems after learning from the best practices and effective measures adopted by award winners. This allows the adopted measures to positively impact overall operation and workforce upskilling.

Safety culture

The CIC is steadfast in its commitment to bolstering safety culture within the industry. CIC has declared 2024 as the “Year of Safety” and has increased the weightage of safety standards to 20 percent in the judging criteria across various award categories.

Thomas Ho pointed out that optimal safety can be achieved through several project aspects. These include safety-focused design, clear delineation of roles and responsibilities for all parties involved, implementation of the Smart Site Safety System (4S), and comprehensive temporary works management plans.

In “Safety Culture”, judges will evaluate the extent to which applicants have shown dedication to improving safety performance and fostering adherence to safety guidelines at all employee levels. Applicants should also demonstrate a commitment to cultivating a site safety culture that not only cares for the community but also promotes a spirit of care. As an example, companies are encouraged to hold daily construction safety morning assembly. These assemblies serve to enhance construction safety through practising on the use of double-lanyard safety harnesses, conducting dynamic risk assessments before work commences and providing briefings on site safety measures.

An applicant’s safety record is a significant factor. Should a contractor’s staff be implicated in industrial accidents during the evaluation period, it would negatively impact the score.

Integrity management

The construction industry employs a large workforce and involves numerous procedures handled by various personnel.

The CIC is committed to promoting integrity, a key factor in the construction sector’s sustainable development. The 2024 edition introduces a new category, “Integrity Management”, in collaboration with the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Over the past few years, the concept of integrity management has gained traction. However, as it remains somewhat unfamiliar to some small-scale construction firms probably due to resources implication, there is a need to boost contractors’ awareness and adoption of integrity management.

The CIC underscores the significance of fostering integrity and ethical standards within the construction industry. This not only enhances the industry’s overall image and professionalism but also establishes a healthier, more sustainable business environment. It aids the sector in building a trustworthy image, improving the effectiveness of corruption preventive measures in construction projects, and laying a solid foundation for its long-term growth and development.

At the Launching Ceremony, Mr. Bryan Chong, Director of Corruption Prevention of the ICAC, emphasised that integrity is the cornerstone of effective project management.

In collaboration with the CIC and other government departments, the ICAC advocates for integrity management in the construction sector. “The ICAC, Development Bureau, and the CIC jointly launched the “Construction Industry Integrity Charter 2.0”, Mr. Chong said, “More than 400 construction companies and consulting firms have joined the Charter 2.0, covering over 80,000 employees. These companies have to implement an integrity policy and arrange their senior management staff to regularly attend integrity training. Since the launch of the Charter 2.0, the ICAC has organised training sessions for more than 16,000 construction industry practitioners.  We also published Integrity Risk Management (IRM) Toolkits to assist companies in adopting our IRM model to implement control measures in high corruption risk areas such as recruitment of workers, procurement and tendering.”

Key dates

Application for the CIC Outstanding Contractor Award 2024 is now open until 31 May 2024.

The CIC will organise online briefing sessions in March and April 2024.

The winners will be announced at an award presentation ceremony scheduled in November 2024.