THE Board of Investments (BOI) approved the grant of perks to the mass housing projects of four companies with aggregate investment of P439.28 million.

Trade Secretary and BOI chairman Peter B. Favila said the new projects of Firm Builders Realty Development Corp.; Filinvest Land Inc., Stateland Inc. and Phinma Property Holdings Corp. will help address the 3.6-million housing backlog of the country today.

The four firms will build 1,145 new low-cost housing projects spread in the four sites in Sibulan, Negros Oriental; Sto. Tomas, Batangas; Cabuyao, Laguna; and Novaliches, Quezon City.

During construction, these projects will generate employment for 1,000 Filipinos.

Incentives like income tax holidays and duty-free importation of equipment are given to construction firms to encourage them to go into new mass-housing projects.

According to the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA), a study made by the Center for Research and Communication (CRC)  now known as University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP), mass-housing project has an investment multiplier effect of 16.6.

This means that for every peso invested in a housing project, P16.60 worth of investments in related industries are generated.

SHDA also claims that the same formula is being used by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Committee (HUDCC), Housing Land Utilization and Regulatory Board (HLURB) and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

The registration as new developer of mass-housing project is one of the preferred areas of investments covered by the 2006 Investment Priorities Plan under the sub-heading Infrastructure-Mass Housing Projects.

Meanwhile, the DTI will now allow contractors based outside of Metro Manila to file their license applications in the provincial offices of the DTI-Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP).

Trade Undersecretary and CIAP officer-in-charge Zenaida Cuison Maglaya said the decentralization of the CIAP licensing allows contractors to save on time and cost as they no longer have to travel to the agency’s Makati office just to file their applications for license.

THE Board of Investments (BOI) approved the grant of perks to the mass housing projects of four companies with aggregate investment of P439.28 million.

PHILIPPINE coffee exports recorded incremental growth over the last five years from $1.14 million in 2002 to $5.41 million in 2006.

REGIONAL socioeconomic planners in Davao on Wednesday said agricultural production and tourist arrivals boosted the region’s economy last year, even as they see increased election spending would boost productive activities this time around.

A STUDY conducted by an international coalition of environmental health-care advocates showed that four Metro Manila government hospitals have proven that proper health-care management is doable and hospitals can even earn if they adopt best practices in waste management.

LET there be light, and there was light.”

This is just one of the few and very essential things that man cannot live without. Light was so important that God created it during the first days of the world.