Build With Integrity

From dream to reality: Hong Beng Lim shares the trials and successes of his civil engineering business, Feng Ming Construction.

- Sharon Masige

When Feng Ming Construction Managing Director Hong Beng Lim was a teenager, he witnessed firsthand Singapore’s transformation from an empty rural landscape to a thriving city dotted with an array of high-rise buildings. “The way the roofs led from one building to another always inspired me,” Hong Beng tells The CEO Magazine. “I wanted to be useful and contribute to society, and I knew that if I took part in this transformation, I would also fulfil my dream.”

In 1989, Hong Beng turned his dream into a reality by founding Feng Ming Construction (FM), a civil engineering powerhouse that handles infrastructure projects such as roads, waterways, tunnels and bridges. With a workforce of more than 250 people, the company has conducted more than 120 projects throughout Singapore. Its revenue has doubled over the past five years and, in 2016, recorded the completion of S$500-million worth of construction works.

Some of FM’s projects include upgrading part of Singapore’s East Coast Parkway, a 20-kilometre expressway that goes along the country’s southeast coast; water diversion works to support the construction of Lendlease Singapore’s massive S$3.2-billion, 3.9-hectare Paya Lebar Quarter development; and the rejuvenation of Muscat Street, which leads to the mesmerising Masjid Sultan mosque. The redevelopment project, undertaken in 2012, was a collaboration between Oman’s Muscat Municipality and Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. It involved infusing traditional Omani architecture, such as eight-metre-high granite arches to frame traditional artworks and ancient tiling patterns.