The recent increase in the number of contractor-financed infrastructure projects might make it sensible to include the financial services sectors as well. It is probably better to regard construction as a loose agglomeration of agents and activities, which can be unpackaged and packaged in different ways. Two features distinguish construction from other industries. The role and responsibilities of each participant in the process have also to be legally defined. The institutional framework of the industry is largely unique to each country or State, giving local firms an edge in bidding.
Construction plays a vital role in the process of economic growth and development.
Such examples are the Middle East after the dramatic rise in oil prices in 1973 and NICs of Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. Construction is now expanding very fast in China and Viet Nam. But there are limits to the process of capital-labour substitution in construction, and productivity advances have generally not kept pace with those in manufacturing. Construction activity requires a lot of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour. The repair and maintenance of existing structures requires even more labour than new construction.