Amalgamation of Construction Industry Council and Construction Industry Training Authority

Amalgamation of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and the Construction Industry Training Authority (CITA) tomorrow (January 1) will mean more effective guidance in training for construction personnel.

The current functions of CITA on training and trade testing will be taken over by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to be formed under CIC tomorrow.

"We wish to thank CITA for its long-standing contribution in nurturing a high quality construction workforce through training courses for construction workers and frontline site supervisors and conducting trade tests," a CIC spokesman said.

"CITB will build on the strengths of CITA and continue to operate these services under the new name of 'Construction Industry Council Training Academy' (CICTA). It will capitalise on the synergy created by the amalgamation to integrate training and trade testing into CIC's core objective of raising the quality and competitiveness of the construction industry."

All existing training and trade test certificates issued by CITA would remain valid, the spokesman said.

CITA was appointed by the Construction Workers Registration Authority as the Registrar under the Construction Workers Registration Ordinance in February, 2005.

CIC will become the registrar upon the amalgamation and will continue to operate the five Workers Registration Offices.

CIC will also take over collection of the construction industry levy from CITA. The levy rate and collection mechanism will remain unchanged.

Apart from funding training and trade testing, the industry levy will be used to finance the operations of CIC and other initiatives such as research and development that will benefit both the construction industry and the community.

The CITB consists of a chairman and 12 members appointed by CIC. Members include two public officers as well as people representing professionals and consultants, contractors, trade unions and training institutes. The current chairman and members are appointed to serve for one year starting tomorrow.

The membership is as follows:

Chairman
－－
Mr Billy Wong Wing-hoo

Members
－－
Dr Lawrence Chan Wan-ching
Mr Cheung Tak-hing
Mr Donald Choi Wun-hing
Mr Paul Chong Kin-lit
Mr Chow Luen-kiu
Mr Thomas Ho On-sing
Ir Helen Kwan Po-jen
Mr Jimmy Tse Lai-leung
Mr Wan Koon-sun
Mr Yu Sai-yen
Mr David Tong Sek-por
Mr Tso Sing-hin

Monday, December 31, 2007