Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) returning home for good are now assured of domestic employment, with the construction industry alone seen to generate 1 million jobs annually in the next six years.
Budget Secretary E. Benjamin Diokno, during the panel discussion of the Global Investment Forum at F1 Hotel in the Bonifacio Global City on Wednesday, said government infrastructure projects alone can already generate at least $50 billion worth of jobs in the next six years.
This, Diokno said, will help assure OFWs that coming home to the Philippines will not render them jobless. He said the government has an P8.2-trillion infrastructure budget that can generate the needed boost to economic activity and job generation.
“Can you imagine if we are on a three-shift basis in construction, plus the amount of money that we are going to spend on construction, this does not include housing, which is a private-sector concern,” Diokno said. “There will be a lot of jobs in the Philippines. If they [OFWs] want to come home, they are welcome to come home.”
Diokno said the government will undertake P860.7 billion worth of infrastructure projects in 2017. While the number and cost of infrastructure projects are lower than the desired average of over P1.3 trillion a year, he expects the amount to gradually ramp up in the coming years.
He said these projects include big-ticket infrastructure undertakings, such as the P250-billion to P300-billion Mindanao Railway Project, as well as road-widening projects to be undertaken nationwide.
The list also includes various National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board-approved projects, such as the New Cebu International Container Port Project; South Line of the North-South Railway Project; Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project, Stage 2; Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) PPP Project; Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)-Edsa; Plaridel Bypass Road Project; and the Improvement/Widening of General Luis Road (Quezon City to Valenzuela City) Project, among others.
The projects also include those under the P2.2-trillion Three-Year Rolling Infrastructure Program (TRIP). The TRIP is a modification of the Comprehensive and Integrated Infrastructure Program.
The TRIP is the multiyear program for infrastructure that ensures that once an infrastructure program has been planned and rolled out, it will continue to receive funding from the government.
Further, Diokno said the administration is pushing heads of agencies to speed up the crafting of projects or they will lose their jobs in the process.
Tungpalan on Monday also told the BusinessMirror that the Neda, Infrastructure Committee (Infracom) and the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) will also propose infrastructure projects needed to meet the government’s infrastructure-spending target. The projects will be contained in the Public Investment Program (PIP) that is currently being drafted by the Neda. The PIP is the country’s medium-term investment blueprint.
Tungpalan said the PIP, which will be released sometime next year, will contain at least a shortlist of projects that will be undertaken between 2017 and 2022.
Undersecretary Ruth B. Castelo of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) also said employment in the construction industry will see a boom starting 2017, with the Duterte administration’s impetus for a “Golden Age” in infrastructure. Castelo said the government sees the sector hiring a million workers annually in the next six years.
The contribution of the construction industry, both from public and private activities, is estimated at 7 percent of the national economy, or about P1 trillion.
Employment to be generated is seen to double from the 3 million workers in the construction industry estimated from January 2016 by the Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA) to 6 million in 2022.
“If we can generate 1 million a year in construction [jobs] for the next six years, by the end of the [administration’s] term by 2022, we can see some 6 million,” Castelo said, during the Philippine Construction Congress for Employment Generation held on Wednesday.
Castelo clarified the 1 million workers will only be in the construction industry, and the figures exclude additional employment to be generated in related industries.
CIAP intends to facilitate this employment goal by accelerating the accreditation of contractors, which has steadily been increasing since the middle of the year, especially after the present administration gave the green light for nine infrastructure projects worth P 171 billion in September. “As of July we have 8,000 accredited contractors. By year-end we expect 15,000 contractors, and next year, 18,000,” Castelo said.
Public Works Undersecretary Maria Catalina E. Cabral added that the construction industry has been growing at an average rate of 11.2 percent from 2012 to 2016, underscoring the economic impact of construction to economic growth.
With Catherine N. Pillas