The Executive Director of Association of Botswana Building and Civil Engineering Contractors (ABCON), Nic Jansen Van Rensburg, has announced that ABCON, in association with Tshipidi Badiri, the association of citizen building contractors and PPC are set to host the Building Botswana conference and exposition from September 15-17 in Gaborone.
Rensburg said the conference is designed to bring together people in the construction industry to learn new techniques and keep abreast with the new technologies that will make construction work easier and of high quality.
“The conference is intended to provide building contractors, engineers, architects and related business services with information that they can use in improving the construction industry in Botswana,” he said.
Added Rensburg: “Our construction industry is lagging behind and we hope different exhibitors will bring in diverse products that will be of great benefit to local building companies.”
Rensburg said this year’s conference is aimed at coming up with a standardized context and construction document for the government projects. He added that the document will be modified for private use.
“We want to use standardization to improve profitability in contracts, materials and find ways how contractors can benefit from Government’s moves to smaller contracts through reservation, nomination and focus on maintenance,” he said.
Rensburg said the construction industry is faced with a number of challenges that include the shift by government from investing into new projects to the maintenance of old buildings.
“During the conference, we expect the government to explain to us its policy shift for the benefit of the construction industry,” he said.
Following reports in the media about shoddy building by the Chinese construction companies, Rensburg said this problem is not restricted to the Chinese, instead many people in the construction industry are also encountering the same problem. He added that from this upcoming conference such problems will be addressed. He, however, urged the government to manage their projects and enforce the construction companies to adhere to set standards to avoid sub standard work in their projects.
“Different exhibitors from within and outside Botswana are expected to participate in this conference,” he said, adding that, so far, they had received confirmation from South Africa and Germany construction companies who are willing to participate in this conference.
Rensburg said for the first time this year, Building Botswana conference will see the awarding of the Best Builder in Botswana prize sponsored by PPC Cement Botswana.
