Jesus Motoomull of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) said the sector was not affected by the 2008-2009 global recession and posted a strong showing during the first decade of the current century.
“There was a lot of construction around, from government to private projects,” Motoomull told reporters on Thursday after a forum with Davao City contractors at the side of the Philippine International Construction Equipment and Building Materials Exhibition (PhilConstruct) at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Convention Hall here.
The sector generated $365.4 million from 2000-09 in foreign-exchange receipts and chipped in $28.91 million for the first nine months last year. It contributed higher in the 1980s, at $1.317 billion, but dropped significantly to $364.1 million in the next decade due to the Asian financial meltdown that began in July 1997.
Although badly hit in 1997, the sector still held its record tight as the biggest employer next to manufacturing. From contributing 4.2 percent of total employment generated in the 1980s, its contribution rose to 5 percent in the 1990s, and climbed further to 5.4 percent in 2000-09.
Last year construction posted a 5.6-percent share, employing 2.014 million workers.
Also last year, 600 more contractors registered with the CIAP, most of them in the National Capital Region. The Davao region, however, asserted its place as the boom city in the country, with 43 applications out of 153 that filed with the Department of Trade and Industry, where the CIAP is based as an attached agency.
The total number of contractors in the Davao region, at 400, also doubled that of the number in Cebu, one of the major metropolises in the country. Cebu has only 200.
“Davao is definitely a high-growth region today, with a lot of projects for both the government and the private sector,” he said.
Government projects consist mainly of roads and bridges, while private constructions were very dominant in condominiums and housing projects.
The DTI also launched on Thursday the new window on the processing and approval of licenses and registration of projects in the DTI offices in Davao City and Cebu City.
For the 2010-11 period, the CIAP record showed that Region 9 or the Zamboanga Peninsula has the highest number of applicants at 176, followed by Region 11 or the Davao region with 160.
Central Mindanao took third place in Mindanao, with 74 applications and with 118 contractors already registered.
While Region 10 or Northern Mindanao posted high growths in Mindanao during the last two years, it lagged behind as a far fourth at 65 in new contractors. With this region were Caraga in Northeastern Mindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
