Philippine Contractor’s Accreditation Board (PCAB) of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippine (CIAP), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has come up with an innovative and efficient way to serve its stakeholders in the Visayas by decentralizing the evaluation of Contractor’s License through the CIAP Window in Cebu effective this year 2018.
CIAP’s Window Cebu services include pre-screening and evaluation of application for a contractor’s license; acceptance of complaints or cases, staff logistics, coordination support during hearings and orientation on mediation for small claims and information dissemination and promotion, acceptance of new and renewal application prior to registration/ authorization.
According to DTI 7 Regional Director Asteria Caberte, decentralization of the evaluation process aims to provide more access and faster transaction of the contractors from region 7 to easily avail of the service. Through this facility the contractors from different provinces of Central Visayas need not travel to Manila to Transact business, thus, saving time and reducing cost of doing business.
Dir. Caberte underscored that for the months of January – March, 2018, 215 applications were processed and evaluated or a 51% increase from the same period last year. “Note that this year the CIAP office has managed to shorten processing time, from 3 months to 1 month,” Caberte added.
Meanwhile, the construction industry in Central Visayas is expected to grow further in the next four years as the Philippine industry is driven largely by the residential and the infrastructure markets.
The infrastructure market is said to be the fastest-growing sector in the construction industry, with growth rate driven by Philippine government plans to develop high-speed rail links, highways and seaports through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
To boost construction activities further, Caberte said, the Department of Trade and Industry – Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (DTI-CIAP) lead the evaluation of the country’s construction roadmap during the 2nd Philippine Construction Congress at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) held last year.
In addition, the Bohol Contractors and Contractors Association of Negros presented their plan to affiliate with the Construction Manpower Development Foundation (CMDF), one of the implementing boards of CIAP, in order to properly train the construction manpower covered in their provinces.
The Philippine Construction Congress united the country’s key industry players and laid out the conceptual framework in drafting the Philippines’ Construction Industry Roadmap for 2017-2022, anchored on the infrastructure projects under the Duterte administration’s “Build. Build. Build” program.
Aside from creating a road map, the Philippine Construction Congress streamlined public and private efforts to come up with lucrative public-private partnerships and augment the government’s vision of the Build, Build, Build program to increase the productive capacity of the economy, create jobs, increase incomes and strengthen the investment climate leading to sustained inclusive growth.
Infrastructure is among the top priorities of the current administration. In his 10-point Socioeconomic Agenda, President Duterte envisioned the reduction of poverty from 21.6 percent in 2015 to between 13 percent and 15 percent by 2022.
Among the reforms that will drive this agenda is the acceleration of infrastructure and the development of industries that will yield robust growth across the archipelago, create jobs and uplift the lives of Filipinos.
In 2016, the share of the construction industry to total employment of the country stood at 8.2 percent as indicated in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data. In Central Visayas the share of construction industry to total employment is 7.3 percent.
PSA data also confirms that the Philippine construction industry expanded its work force by 675,000 last year—equivalent to the combined employment generated from 2011 to 2015—to end at 3.3 million in 2016. The industry is expected to employ 5.8 million workers by 2022.
Data from the PSA showed major drivers of the country’s economic growth in 2016 were the accelerated performances of the industry and service sectors. PSA data indicated the growth in the industry sector was due to the robust performance of the construction industry.
