by Gliceria N. Cademia | Services Division | DTI-Export Marketing Bureau

04 April 2018

Published also in Business Mirror

Conclusion

Participants were advised to get familiarized also on the World Trade Organization classification of their services to get engaged to more networks from partner economies to connect and maximize the benefit from free-trade agreement.

She encouraged contractors and professionals to register at Apec and Asean registry of engineers to allow them to join overseas projects in Apec Engineer economies looking for without having to undertake further examination or interview. In some cases, they may also be able to obtain discounted dual membership in both accredited professional Organization and an equivalent engineering society or institution overseas.

Eleven general areas of practice are currently available for registration in Apec Registry of Engineers: Agricultural Engineering, Civil/Structural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communications Engineering, Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Geodetic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Mining Engineering, and Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

The Regional Interactive Platform for PH Exporters (Ripples) Plus, a flagship project of EMB is designed to increase exports and investments and intensify small and medium enterprises development efforts. It aims to expand the supply base of internationally competitive Philippine export products and services by extending strategic firm level interventions to participating companies to make them export ready and/or enhance their export capacity and competitiveness and to establish and maintain a database of exporters/ manufacturers from all over the country.

The Development Bank of the Philippines has a financing program to support the national government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.  DBP offers a maximum loan amount up to 70 percent of awarded contract/s or allowable ranges of contract cost whichever is lower. The eligible borrowers are contractors duly licensed by the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) under classification general engineering, building and specialty contracting with license under quadruple A, Triple A, Double A and A,B,C,D and Trade categories.

The eligible projects are social infrastructure, residential buildings, nonresidential buildings, transport infrastructure, water supply, wastewater, sanitation and other utility infrastructure, communications infrastructure, waste infrastructure, power and energy infrastructure.

The CIAP’s PCAB is mandated to issue, deny, suspend or revoke contractors licenses per Republic Act (RA) 4566. It issues a regular license to constructor-firms of Filipino sole proprietorship, or partnership/corporation with at least 60 percent Filipino equity participation and duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the Philippines, and a special license to a joint venture, a consortium, a foreign constructor or a project owner which shall authorize the licensee to engage only in the construction of a single specific project.

CPES is a system of grading the performance of a constructor for a specific kind of project using a set of criteria being implemented by CIAP’s Philippine Domestic Construction Board. It is embodied in RA 9184 which provides that “All procuring entities implementing infrastructure projects are mandated to evaluate the performance of their contractors using the Neda-Approved CPES Guidelines regardless of contract amount and funding source. CPES shall be done during construction and upon completion of each government project.”

CIAP Document 102

CIAP document 102 is a uniform general condition of contract for private construction. It contains terms and conditions ordinarily established in construction contracts and was formulated to provide the procedures, guidelines, and criteria to be used by parties in a construction Contract, or use as reference to the Contract to address deficiencies and/or any ambiguity.

In case of disagreements, CIAP resolves disputes through Construction Industry Arbitration Commission which is tasked to provide the industry with the necessary alternative dispute resolution facilities for the speedy and equitable settlement of claims and disputes arising from, or connected with, construction contracts in the Philippines.

The DTI holds overseas and domestic construction information and capacity-building sessions.