P160B projects seen to spur more growth

The Philippine government through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will fuel more activities for the construction industry in the country with a P144.3 budget billion road projects and P20 billion for tourism support infrastructure this year.

DPWH Undersecretary for Technical Services Raul Asis made the announcement in yesterday’s opening ceremony of the 2013 PhilConstruct Visayas Show at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.

Asis said the construction industry is expected to expand further given the many investments from the public sector alone.

“As I have mentioned, we will continue to increase investments in infrastructure to upgrade the quality and safety of our national roads and bridges by 2016. Our budget for infrastructure increased by 44 percent this year, from P99.5 billion in 2012 to P144.3 billion in 2013. For 2014, we are proposing a further increase to P189 billion or an additional 30 percent increase,” said Asis.

For 2014, Asis said, that they are focusing efforts on road widening, upgrading from gravel to concrete roads, rehabilitation of bad roads and maintenance and safety of national roads.

Cebu projects

“We are now implementing the high standard highway network master plans in Cebu and in the Tagum-Davao-GenSan corridor. Included in the Cebu master plan are projects like the extension of Cebu Coastal road up to Liloan, construction of Cebu Hillside roads and its connector roads, widening of Cebu North road, construction of Cebu North parallel road, widening of Cebu South road from Naga to Carcar, construction of Cebu South parallel road, improvement of the Mactan circumferential road with remaining works for 2014 and beyond amounting to P3.3 billion, and the widening of the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge,” said Asis.

Asis said that aside from upgrading the national roads, another strategic program that they are embarking on is the DPWH-DOT (Department of Tourism) convergence program to upgrade both local and national roads leading to priority tourism destinations.

Asis said the agency would be investing heavily in the Visayas and Mindanao regions for the program.

“Total investments for tourism and infrastructure for 2012-2013 is P20 billion and we are proposing another P20 billion in 2014. This does not include investments for airports and seaports,” he said.

Of the P20 billion budget, P2.8 billion in 2012-2013 and P1.4 billion in 2014 will be poured into projects in Central Visayas.

Techno forums

The show according to Asis will help enable and equip industry players with the latest technology available for the industry as well as improve skills of the manpower pool through the seminars and forums that is also happening during the three-day event.

According to the event overall chairman Bernard Sia, they have lined up at least seven technoforums that is helpful for the industry players including a forum by the Office of the Building Official (OBO) on the revised Structural Code of the Philippines 2010 edition today at 9 a.m.

Taxation Forum, Interior Design and Media Seminar and Safety on Scaffolding Seminar will also be done today.