The National BIM E-Submission or NBeS is a an initiative by the Construction IndustryDevelopment Board (CIDB) to implement Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology in conjunction with other CIDB’s BIM implementation. It shortens thetime period required for building plan approval to be provided by the local authorities. Developed and administered by one of the subsidiaries of CIDB (CIDB E-Construct Services Sdn Bhd) NBeS has become one of the initiatives by CIDB to increase overall productivity of the national construction industry.

During its initial stage, pilot projects for NBeS were carried out in partnership with several local and municipal authorities in 2019. Positive feedbacks received on the development of NBeS through the implementation of the pilot projects, without standing overall evaluation score. Research benchmarking was also carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT), Public Works Department (JKR), Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC).

Aimed to improve and expedite the building approval processes and procedures, NBeS leverages the latest technology and digital infrastructures to transform the conventional submission into a fully automated and online submission. After severalissues and suggestions related to governance, agency readiness, user readiness, change management, communication plan, resources allocation and expertise challenges were rectified progressively over the years, NBeS recorded a significant impact in reducing the time required to produce approval of building plans in 2020.

Moving forward, the next stage would see the integration of NBeS with OSC 3.0 Plus Online, which would position Malaysia as one of the pioneers in the digitalization process of the Uniform Building By-Laws 1986 (UBBL 1986), as well as the fullautomation and online process for Building Plan Approval and Certificate of Completion & Compliance (CCC).

CIDB and its subsidiary CIDB E-Construct Services are continuously improving the integrity and reliability of the NBeS ecosystem, as the goalsare to increase efficiency and effectiveness of overall Build Plan Approvalprocess, solidify the principles of transparency, accountability and integrity among the personnel of the approving authorities as well asminimizing incompliance to the applicable rules and legislations by the consultants and developers. In the near future, it is envisioned that NBEs will be become an integraland indispensable part of the Building Plan Approval process by the authorities, consequently improving the standards and productivity of the national construction industry.