In Asian countries, construction industry contributes to the development of sound basis for safe and efficient life of people though the development of social infrastructure and management of natural environmental resources. Especially, in Asia, while countries suffer from natural hazards, economic development is very active, which creates very strong demands to the construction and maintenance of social infrastructures. With these backgrounds, the better performance of construction industries will provide large economic and social benefits not only to people and the other industries in each country, but to Asian region itself by both promoting transboundary exchanges of goods and services and improving regional capacity of natural / environmental resource management and hazard prevention.

　On the other hands, construction industry is one of the oldest industries strongly connected with public sectors and has large numbers of low-skill workers and small firms, which may cause the low efficiency and the less flexibility of applying new technologies.

　In recent years, active movement has been initiated in several Asian countries to improve the performance of construction industry by applying IT systematically. Electronic procurement and bidding, CAD and model-based simulations for rapid and sophisticated planning and design of infrastructures, Remote Sensing and GIS for natural and environmental resource management and facility management, and Robotics for construction works are the examples of such diversified and active efforts along this direction. The application of IT, however, should be made systematically and consistently because the individual activities in construction projects are strongly related with each other.

　Aiming at providing guidance and prospects for efficient and effective applications of IT in construction industry in Asia, Asian IT Forum for Construction Industry invites key persons from Asian countries to share the experiences and knowledge, and to discuss about the following topics;