The Department of Trade and Industry is not keen on immediately liberalizing the construction sector as favored by foreign advocacy groups and business chambers.
Trade Undersecretary for construction and Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines head Ruth Castelo said at a briefing Wednesday during the Asean Construction Summit in Pasay City the government was still assessing the liberalization of the construction sector.
“For different project levels, we have different equity participation. Right now we allow 100 percent foreign participation on projects with capitalization of P1 billion and up. That’s as far as we can go for now. If we are to allow 100 percent foreign equity on any or all Philippine infrastructure and construction projects, we still need to determine up to what point can we allow this,” she said.
Big and small contractors in the Philippines are estimated at over 10,000.
“We should allow local contractors to flourish first. The Build Build Build program is an immense program but we believe these projects can be done by Filipinos. If we allow foreign contractors to come in 100 percent, they should at least bring in new technology and specialized work together with capitalization and the interest to invest in the Philippines,” Castelo said.
She added the private sector had a pending consensus to increase the salaries of construction wage workers by as much as P300 a day from the current minimum wage, as an incentive for workers to discourage them from going overseas for gainful employment.
The Build, Build, Build infrastructure program will need at least 2.5 million additional manpower to keep the projects going, on top of the 3.3 million workers currently employed by the industry.
Castelo said there was no shortage of workforce for the sector. “What we have right now is skills mismatch. That’s why we are training Filipinos on basic construction skills like carpentry, masonry, plumbing and electrical skills,” she said, noting that about 70 percent of the workers in the construction industry were unskilled.
Castelo, however, said the government might require trained labor to stay in the Philippines for at least two years to provide assistance to the massive infrastructure program in exchange for the free training offered by the government.
