REGULATIONS need to be in place to ensure that all stakeholders involved in the construction industry are licensed.
Speaking at the national building code workshop at the Novotel Suva Lami Bay yesterday, construction industry council president Gordon Jenkins said there was need to form licensing arrangements in Fiji to ensure all those involved in the industry were highly qualified.
“We need to licence builders regulating all people that work in the construction industry because everywhere else in the world they have a licensing arrangement but Fiji doesn’t.
“Fiji needs this mainly because of the very bad understanding of the industry that it is not that important.
“Through this it gives the consumers the confidence and also the designers involved.
“We have seen that contractors are getting other people to do the job for them,” he said.
Mr Jenkins said one of the failures in Fiji’s construction industry was that most builders aren’t licensed.
Workshop facilitator and Australian consultant Rhys Gwilliam said the construction industry had started to boom over the years in Fiji with the increase of new buildings.
He said it was also important that regulations were put in place to ensure that those working in the industry were certified and could deliver the job.
