Prolonged PH infra drive requires roadmap – CIAP
Credit to Author: TYRONE JASPER C. PIAD| Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2019 16:25:14 +0000
The Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) is pushing for a 10-year roadmap for construction to continue the aggressive infrastructure drive in the country even after the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Prolonging the government’s “Build Build Build” program would help the Philippines stay at par with its neighboring countries in terms of infrastructure, said Rowel Barba, a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) undersecretary who supervises the CIAP, on Tuesday.
“We need another 10 years to sustain [the country’s ] infrastructure development,” Barba added.
He said legislation was needed to effectively implement the infrastructure plan, otherwise known as the Construction Industry Roadmap 2030.
Recently approved and commissioned by the board of CIAP and the Philippine Constructors Association (PCA) and scheduled to be launched on March 28, 2019 in Clark, Pampanga, the roadmap has set construction spending at P40 trillion over a period of 10 years starting this year to sustain “Build Build Build”.
The roadmap is expected to grow employment in the construction sector from 10 percent to 20 percent or 800,000 at most during the 10-year period, Barba said. He said the current workforce of the sector was around 4 million.
Barba added that attention would be given to building residential properties to address the housing problem in the country. A portion of the spending will also be allocated to the development of tourism infrastructures to boost the industry, he said.
Meanwhile, PCA Executive Director Barry Paulino is bullish with the plan, saying “there is a good momentum now and we have to continue that momentum beyond the present administration.”
Paulino revealed the roadmap was also eyeing to train more human resources in the construction sector, especially those from the younger bracket.
“We are doing now some adjustments because we are trying to train 2,000 supervisors. Supervisors will train 150 skilled workers,” he said, noting that this will translate to 300,000 trained workers.
To raise productivity, the roadmap also gears toward digital construction with the introduction of new technologies, Paulino said.
“In the age of digitization, we are trying to transform the industry into a manufacturing-type of industry,” he said.
Paulino also sees curbing of corruption with the use of building information modelling technology which can monitor prices of construction materials more efficiently.
The post Prolonged PH infra drive requires roadmap – CIAP appeared first on The Manila Times Online.