4th PhilConstruct opens at SMX Lanang

The 3-day 4^th PhilConstruct Mindanao opened its doors to the public at the SMX Convention Center on September 5, Thursday, with 285 booths, putting into perspective the impact of the construction industry on Mindanao’s economic growth.

“We have 700 contractors registered with the Board and 60% are based in Davao,” Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Davao City Director Teolulo T, Pasawa said Thursday. The distribution of wealth is not trickling down, he said, so it is pulling its resources to the construction industry since it has a bigger multiplier effect.

Event Chairperson Engr. Ramon F. Allado said there may be a similar number of contractors not registered so it is possible that we have at least 2000 contractors here with close to half a million workforce. Mindanao, he said, is the single biggest producer of construction workers who are trained here and are sent to other parts of the country and of the world.

“The construction industry provides money for the local economy with a 15 times minimum multiplier effect in terms of suppliers, workers, lodging establishments and other support facilities,” he said.

Allado said there is a boom in Mindanao construction industry today, especially in Davao. There are two 300-MW coal-powered plants in full construction in the Region today, he said, with Therma South’s project 40% completed and SMC Global Power Holdings Corporation’s project in Malita just starting out. Two more coal-powered plants in Misamis and South Cotabato will start constructing soon, he added. “That’s only the power sector eh yung mining sector pa.”

He said the tourism sector is another big user of the construction industry with various tourism construction projects going on and many that are yet to be developed.

Allado said the Department of Education (DepEd) has completed the public-private partnership (PPP) bidding for 20,000 classrooms in Mindanao. Sector, which comprises almost the other half of Mindanao with 10,000 classrooms to be built in one and a half years.

“All of these spell at least P40 Billion for Mindanao alone,” he said.

The booming construction industry is one of the reasons why the organizers have decided to make PhilConstruct Mindanao a yearly event every September. With more than a hundred innovative suppliers of equipment, technology suppliers, materials and tools, the stakeholders of Mindanao’s construction industry need not go to Manila or Cebu to get the latest in construction technology, he said.

Pasawa said “Davao is a very good market for the construction industry with a 2.4% growth per annum, 1.5 million people and vast availability of land that is seven times larger than Cebu and three times larger than Metro Manila.”

He said the city has a very reliable 24/7 power supply which is also among the country’s cheapest at P6 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) (beaten only by Lanado del Sur) compared to the almost P8 per kwh in Cebu. The city has also consistently ranked at the top of the Most Competitive Cities Survey by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), he added.

Davao City has a very vibrant construction industry, he said, that DTI has established desks and officers for regulatory purposes including the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board which handles registration and the Construction Manpower Development Authority which handles arbitration cases.

Construction industry a big boost to Mindanao’s economy

The conduct of the 4^th PhilConstruct Mindanao at the SMX Convention Center on September 5 to 7, 2013 (with over 100 exhibitors) has put into perspective the impact of the construction industry on Mindanao’s economic growth with an estimated worth of P40 Billion.

“We have 700 contractors registered with the Board and 60% are based in Davao,” Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Davao City Director Teolulo T, Pasawa said. The distribution of wealth is not trickling down, he said, so it is pulling its resources to the construction industry since it has a bigger multiplier effect.

Event Chairperson Engr. Ramon F. Allado said there may be a similar number of contractors not registered so it is possible that we have at least 2000 contractors here with close to half a million workforce. Mindanao, he said, is the single biggest producer of construction workers who are trained here and are sent to other parts of the country and of the world.

“The construction industry provides money for the local economy with a 15 times minimum multiplier effect in terms of suppliers, workers, lodging establishments and other support facilities,” he said.

Mr. Allado said there is a boom in Mindanao construction industry today, especially in Davao. There are two 300-MW coal-powered plants in full construction in the Region today, he said, with Therma South’s project 40% completed and SMC Global Power Holdings Corporation’s project in Malita just starting out. Two more coal-powered plants in Misamis and South Cotabato will start constructing soon, he added. “That’s only the power sector eh yung mining sector pa.”

He said the tourism sector is another big user of the construction industry with various tourism construction projects going on and many that are yet to be developed.

Mr. Allado said the Department of Education (DepEd) has completed the public-private partnership (PPP) bidding for 20,000 classrooms in Mindanao. Sector, which comprises almost the other half of Mindanao with 10,000 classrooms to be built in one and a half years.

“All of these spell at least P40 Billion for Mindanao alone,” he said.

The booming construction industry is one of the reasons why the organizers have decided to make PhilConstruct Mindanao a yearly event every September. With more than a hundred innovative suppliers of equipment, technology suppliers, materials and tools, the stakeholders of Mindanao’s construction industry need not go to Manila or Cebu to get the latest in construction technology, he said.

Mr. Pasawa said “Davao is a very good market for the construction industry with a 2.4% growth per annum, 1.5 million people and vast availability of land that is seven times larger than Cebu and three times larger than Metro Manila.”

He said the city has a very reliable 24/7 power supply which is also among the country’s cheapest at P6 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) (beaten only by Lanado del Sur) compared to the almost P8 per kwh in Cebu. The city has also consistently ranked at the top of the Most Competitive Cities Survey by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), he added.

Davao City has a very vibrant construction industry, he said, that DTI has established desks and officers for regulatory purposes including the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board which handles registration and the Construction Manpower Development Authority which handles arbitration cases.

DTI to conduct roving academy for SMEs

Aspiring Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Davao Region can increase the chances of setting up their own businesses through the SME Roving Academy.

“The SME Roving Academy is a machinery for information, communication and knowledge creation of Philippine SMES which aims to guide existing or aspiring entrepreneurs establish their own business or sustain existing ones,” Romeo Castañaga of the Department of Trade and Industry said during Monday’s Kapihan held at SM City Annex.

Castañaga said that with the launching of the SME Roving Academy during the 1^st Philippine Investment Conference (I-Con) in Davao City last June, entrepreneurs can expect a package of interventions to help them start or sustain their businesses.

While the Conference aimed to showcase the investment opportunities in the country, it also aimed to steer interest towards the cluster based industrial development strategy to fasttrack countryside growth and development. He said they targeted 600 participants to the Conference, but achieved a 200% attendance with 1,050 participants during the two-day Conference.

He said the package of interventions will include the startup support to help the would-be entrepreneur to choose the appropriate business given his interest, skills and resources. If the entrepreneurs has decided to push through with the business then we will provide registration support, he added.

Also included in the package of interventions for the SMEs are product development, skills training, management and marketing training, entrepreneurship training and financing. The support will extend to helping the entrepreneur maintain or sustain the business or even go into export, he added.

Castañaga said the SME Roving Academy in Davao City will be conducted initially for free in time for the SME Week this July.

FEATURES: Mindanao Trade Expo Bounces Back, Aims For Peace In Mindanao

The war-stricken areas of Mindanao may be a long way from the air conditioned rooms of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas but the Mindanao Trade Expo has bounced back to continue its mission of encouraging peace in the island by making sure Mindanao’s tri-people are holding fibers to create works of arts instead of guns.

“Mas mabuti nang materyales and hawak nila kesa baril that’s why we are reaching out to Mindanao’s tri-people especially the Indigenous People by trying to give them livelihood projects,” Mindanao Trade Expo Foundation, Inc. (MTE) founder and president Ann T. Pamintuan said. “

MTE has been known for bringing to fore the various indigenous products made in Mindanao including Pamintuan’s gold clad wires and other materials from Gilded Expression, the exotic fibers produced by Katakus or the innovative hand-woven products of Crystal Seas.

However, there is more to MTE than what meets the eye of the demanding buyers and the connoisseur. Foremost is the Foundation’s vision of making known to the world the best of Mindanao’s products.

“We initially wanted to provide a venue where we can showcase our products and then it evolved into something deeper than that,” Pamintuan said. Today, there is to make a difference in the lives of Mindanaoans not only in terms of helping entrepreneurs market their products but in keeping people busy creating things rather than destroying the island through war.

It is am ambitious dream, Pamintuan said, but it may be possible in the long run. True enough, the so-called strife in Mindanao is not merely a result of political ideologies but rather of empty stomachs. It follows that empowering people with skills and livelihood projects to make dreams for themselves may be a way to mitigate the problem.

But even this idealistic dream is in danger of vanishing no thanks to the global recession that has made the work more challenging for the Foundation. The MTE started in 1996 with nothing but a vision. Barely twelve years later, the annual trade show was able to amass P630 million in total sales including a P51.780 million cash and retail sale during the actual exhibit days.

The increasing competitiveness in the market as well as their individual businesses has prevented the Foundation officials from staging the MTE last year. Pamintuan said she was willing to just let go and concentrate on my own business until we were approached by exporters who said “matapos niyo kaming i-encourage na mag export iiwan nyo kami sa ere (after encouraging us to go into exporting you will leave us hanging in the air)?”

“And now we are bouncing back and ready to once again provide a venue for Mindanao’s micro, small and medium enterprises,” Pamintuan said. And since 2009 is International Year Of The Fiber it will be the theme of the MTE 2009.

Expect an explosion of Philippine fibers the moment you walk inside the BSP lobby for the MTE 2009 on August 13 to 16. Even the pavilions inside the main exhibit area will be decorated in bamboos and natural fibers. The pavilion, which will have 20 booths each, will vie for the Best Pavilion Award.

The expo will showcase gifts, toys and housewares, furniture and furnishing, home textile, fashion accessories, fine jewelry, processed food, fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and ornamentals and allied services. Pamintuan said they are targeting a minimum of 100 exhibitors from all over Mindanao but they can make room for more.

The expo is expected to get more exhibitors this year since the organizers have lowered the exhibit fee to only P8,000 for members for a 2x2 sqm booth and P9,000 for non-members for a booth of the same size.

“What goes with MTE is not just market promotion but product development and business linkaging as well, “ Department of Trade and Industry XI director Marizon Loreto said.

MTE 2009 Chairperson Domingo Ang said aside from the exhibit the MTE will also showcase an Exporters Forum where the stakeholders can sit down and discuss the strategic plans in combating the worldwide economic downturn. “Without the exporters we cannot market out products to the world so this is an important component of the expo,” he said.

An Exporters Expo which will feature export overruns will also be held back to back with MTE 2009. Exporters will showcase and sell product overruns at very affordable prices.

The rebirth, rather the relaunch of MTE 2009 has managed to stir not only Mindanao’s business sector but the residents as well into believing that despite the world economic crisis there may be a hope for local manufacturers and even for locals who can benefit from the livelihood projects and other opportunities that will come as a result of the expo.

Given its track record of accomplishing what seems to be impossible and that includes bringing in 1,590 exhibitors , 577 buyers from the country and from other countries and generating P630.68 million sales from 1996 to 2007 the MTE is indeed on the right track. But most of all you should look forward to adding more to the already 162 thousand lives touched by MTE during that span of time(EDGE, June '09)

Braga Urge Criminalization Of Making Herbal Medicine False Claims

Davao City Councilor Pilar Braga is urging Congress to craft a law that will criminalize the act of making false claims about medicine and herbal supplements.

Braga said it is high time that the Bureau of Food and Drug as well as the Department of Trade and Industry should look into businessmen who take advantage of the wide acceptability of herbal medicines especially in the province.

The lack of scientific study and guidelines on their efficacy or effects to humans should be enough reason to worry. However, the claim of BFAD that these are food supplements and are therefore not under their jurisdiction makes the situation worse, she said.

Braga said the advertisements for these herbal supplements claim that they have many cures and have good effects on health. Take for example the case of an old man who cannot walk because of arthritis and yet suddenly after taking the herbal supplement he is shown to be able not only walk but even jog, she added.

"Many of these herbal drugs are sold over the counter much like the ordinary medicine," she said. She added that even the DOH encouraged the use of herbal medicines.

These herbal medicines should have been studied and tested by BFAD first before being sold in the market to protect consumers not only from falls claims but also from the possible harmful effects of these products, Braga said.

She said celebrities, doctors and other endorsers of herbal drugs should be held responsible when somebody dies after taking the herbal drugs they endorse. Congress, she said, should craft a law that will criminalize the act of making false claims about medicines or herbal supplements.

Mar Roxas For President?

Stumbled upon this blog “Oras Na, Roxas Na MAR ROXAS”, campaigning for the purportedly presidential candidacy of senator Mar Roxas in 2010. I am not sure if this blogger is doing it on his own (although he has a disclaimer on his site) or this is included in Roxas camp’s political strategy but watch out for his blog as it may just deliver what it purports to do---put Roxas in Malacañang.

I had the chance to accompany the senator during his trips even before he became a senator and I think even before he became the DTI secretary. As Lapanday’s external affairs manager, I was tasked to the entertaining task of being his school bus. He was a very important guest in the city since he is a good friend of my former boss, Cito Lorenzo (another decent by tough guy if you ask me).

So armed with my L200 pick white pick up I fetch Mar from the airport whenever he was Davao and then bring him to where he was supposed to go. I think that was his first or second time in the city of durian. He’s a very nice man though, not the usual politician you’d expect. But that was several years ago and I’m not sure if he has changed since then.