Decentralization of CIAP services reduces cost of doing business

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippine Contractor’s Accreditation Board (PCAB) of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) has decentralized the evaluation of license of Central Visayas contractors through the CIAP Window in Cebu effective this year.

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.

CIAP is an attached agency of Department of Trade and Industry.

The decentralization of the evaluation process aims to provide more access and faster transaction of the contractors from Region 7.

Through this facility the contractors from different provinces of Central Visayas need not travel to Manila to transact business, thus reducing cost of doing business.

From January to March this year, 215 applications were evaluated and forwarded to CIAP Makati for approval.

This is a 51 percent increase compared to January to March 2017.  

About 68 percent (146/215) of the applications were approved while 32 percent or 69 applications are still in process. All applications filed in January and February 2018 were already approved but there are still pending applications for the month of March 2018.

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 government plans to develop high-speed rail links, highways and seaports through public-private partnerships (PPPs).

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.

To boost construction activities further, the DTI-CIAP led the creation of the country’s construction roadmap during the 2nd Philippine Construction Congress at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) last year.

Aside from creating a roadmap, the Philippine Construction Congress  streamlined public and private efforts to come up with lucrative PPPs 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.

In 2016, the share of the construction industry to total employment of the country stood at 8.2 percent. In Central Visayas the share of construction industry to total employment is 7.3 percent.

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 Philippine Statistics Authority (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 in part to the robust performance of the construction industry.