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[av_heading heading=’WV construction boom continues in Q1 of 2017 ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
By Rhick Lars Vladimer Albay
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ILOILO City – Aside from the billions in government infrastructure projects set to rise in Western Visayas – following President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build, build, build” mandate – the private sector also continues to fuel a thriving construction industry in the region.
With plans for the P27-billion Panay-Guimaras-Negros (PGN) island bridge project and the P30-billion revamp of the Iloilo International Airport – among others – cited as priority projects under the current administration’s “golden age of infrastructure”, private sector construction projects also continue to rise in the developing region.
For the first quarter of 2017, the total number of constructions generated from approved building permits tallied at 1,225 in Western Visayas – marginally below the 1,233 of the fourth quarter of 2016, but still sustaining the recent boom in the industry.
This accounts for a floor area of at least 336,606 square meters, valued at around P2,818,257,000 worth of construction projects – higher than the previous quarter’s P2,274,086,000, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The bulk of these construction projects are for business and nonresidential buildings with a floor area of 226,368 sq. meters and valued at around P1,733,535,000. Residential developments account for the remaining 108,267 sq. meters and P1,034,228,000.
Western Visayas accounts for 3.5 percent of the overall number of private construction projects nationwide in the first quarter of this year. At least 35,101 constructions were generated from approved building permits in the first quarter of 2017. This number showed a 7.1 percent increase – or a 2,322 constructions increment – from the 32,779 constructions recorded during the same quarter of 2016.
The top five regions in terms of number of construction projects accounted for 61.3 percent of the total. Region IV-A (Calabarzon) topped other regions with a total 8,392 construction projects (23.9 percent) for the quarter. Region III (Central Luzon) followed next with 4,485 constructions (12.8 percent). Other regions in the top five are: National Capital Region (NCR) with 3,050 constructions (8.7 percent), Region I (Ilocos Region) with 2,870 (8.2 percent), and Region VII (Central Visayas) with 2,710 (7.7 percent).
Meanwhile, Negros Island Region came in at 7th place with 1,829 construction projects as Western Visayas was at 10th.
According to the World Bank’s “Doing Business” project, which provides objective measures of business regulations and enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities around the world, Iloilo is among the most efficient in the country when it comes to construction permits.
According to the body’s study, applying for a building permit and ancillary permits at the Office of the Building Official (OBO) will take only a day on average in Iloilo City, with the approval and assessment process taking around 13 days./PN
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