Precast – the solution for Myanmar’s future?
Myanmar, the country in Southeast Asia which is shaken again and again by ethnic riots, will see increasing development activities in the construction industry in the years to come. According to the consulting company Rieckermann one of the various challenges in this regard will be the need for adequate housing and infrastructure for its growing population. Besides considering renewal of residential areas, the government is addressing this issue with multiple projects of fast but structured development plans for new areas throughout the country. Proj-ects such as New Yangon City and Ayarwun Yadanar Smart District in the Yangon Region or Pyin Oo Lwin near Mandalay are but a few examples to mention. Overall, the target is to build more than one million new housing units by 2040. Considering that the current building speed is approximately 10,000 units per year, this will mean that it will have to increase five-fold – a major challenge for the country.
Rieckermann, the industrial solution provider present in the country through its own office in Yangon, has taken up the task of contributing to mastering this challenge by inviting to a seminar discussion under the heading ‘Precast – The Solution for Building Myanmar’s Future?’ Developers, construction companies, architects, building material suppliers as well as representatives of local associations and authorities followed the call to learn more about the advantages of modern precast, important aspects for the right precast design as well as connections between precast elements. Design and connections are important aspects in Myanmar and have been part of lively discussions recently because Myanmar is a region of high seismic activity. From January to April 2018 alone, a total of 74 earthquakes rated 3 to 6 on the Richter scale struck Myanmar, which shows the importance of safe building technologies. Expert guest speakers from industry-leading companies Elematic and Peikko provided valuable information and replies to the various queries, including feedback from engineering studies as well as examples from across the region and worldwide.
Advantages of precast technology
“Precast methods are being deployed in many other highly seismic areas,” stated Stefan Bonin, General Manager of Rieckermann Myanmar. Ismo Kallio, Vice President of Sales of Elematic, added that “Our aim is to raise companies’ awareness of the advantages of precast and highlight the benefits of this technology.”
Reducing project timelines while increasing budget security and work and construction safety as well as reducing the amount of required materials such as cement, water and steel are clearly the benefits also seen by the industry, as the discussions with about 90 and 70 participants, respectively, at the two Yangon and Mandalay event locations have shown. However, there is still some ground to cover as Myanmar is yet to incorporate the necessary regulations in the Myanmar National Building Code. However, the authorities are supportive of taking this route in order to enable the future of construction in Myanmar to master these challenges.
“We are very happy with the feedback received from individual participants. They showed us that it was the right topic hitting the nerve of the industry in Myanmar,” summarized Matthias Jonas, Industry Manager for Building Technologies at Rieckermann.
