Lotus Square, the Grand Prix Museum, the Wine Museum, and the Tourist Activities Centre are all landmarks on Macau’s urban skyline. To be able to count them among a building contractor’s finished projects, does tell something about his reputation. In fact Soi Kun Engineering was a trusted name during the former Portuguese administration, undertaking many major public infrastructure projects before the city’s return to Chinese rule.
“Our brand stands for a guarantee of quality because we were one of the first local construction firms to achieve ISO certification in Macau,” says company president Mak Soi Kun.

A long hard journey
Recalling the early days of his career, the 53-year-old says his attempts to introduce ISO standards into the local construction industry were anything but plain sailing. His long ISO march began in 1993, but inadequate local technology and expertise meant his first attempt failed. “To implement ISO standards means making extra efforts at every step of the building process. Looking back, the most difficult part was training the workers to meet the requirements,” says Mak.
Not giving up in the face of difficulties is one of the business principles that has enabled Mak to build his empire in the years since he left high school at 17. And his persistence finally paid off in 1997 when his firm earned ISO 9001 certification for quality management and later ISO 14001 for environmental management, one of the first companies in Macau to do so. This kind of international accreditation has helped his firm win numerous public tenders.

Rate and grade
Mak believes it is important for a builder to obtain third-party recognition of its competence to give clients confidence. That is why he is a strong advocate of setting up a rating scheme for building firms in Macau.
“The idea is to have a central register of all contractors, who will be rated according to their performance. The government can then use the ratings as a reference in awarding public tenders. For example, the government can make it a rule that only top rated contractors are allowed to bid for big projects. In this way, the transparency and accountability of the public tender system can be improved,” he suggests.
In neighbouring Hong Kong and on the mainland, similar schemes have been piloted and have received positive feedback. But the idea of rating local construction firms has been met with frustrating government inertia over the past several years. A proposal for a rating scheme was brought up in the Legislative Assembly as early as 2000 – soon after the founding of the Macau Special Administrative Region.
In response to the call, then Secretary for Transport and Public Works Ao Man Long – who is now serving 28 and a half years in jail for corruption – told legislators that such a scheme, though desirable, would involve many technical problems and would need a long-term study.
Although the rating scheme proposal is practically mothballed, Mak is determined to push the government to seriously reconsider the plan. And he is going to use the upcoming Legislative Assembly election to help promote the proposal among other things.
He is running for a seat in the direct elections in September and hopes to help improve the standing of Macau’s construction industry, an important pillar of the local economy.

Joining forces
Mak believes many local contractors have lost direction in recent years. “The last few years have seen a building boom in Macau, with many mega construction projects rolled out. But since the majority of local contractors are small in scale, they have not been able to reap benefits from the boom,” Mak says.
He suggests that small-scale contractors in Macau can join forces, in the form of a consortium for instance, to bid for large projects.
“The up-and-coming light rail system and Hengqing Island development will definitely induce another building boom in Macau. Many new roads, new tunnels, and other public facilities will be built in the coming years. If local firms don’t want to miss out on the opportunities this time around, they will need to team up and upgrade their strength,’’ he says.
Environmental management is another issue of concern for Mak, who is currently a PhD student and has devoted considerable energy to learning green building designs and techniques in recent years.
As public awareness about climate change and pollution is becoming increasingly heightened, he believes the demand for environmentally friendly buildings will grow rapidly.
He also predicts that green construction will soon become a dominant trend in Macau and urges his fellow builders to jump on the bandwagon: “I think environmental management will soon become a necessary investment for every contractor. The sooner they invest in this, the better. Otherwise they will find themselves swimming against the tide.”

by Alan Tso