Lavern D Clarke, Builders Forum Co-ordinatorDIRECT TALKS with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has given the private construction sector new hope that its business and regulatory concerns are well on their way to being addressed.
In mid-November, at a meeting of the Development Council which he chairs, the Prime Minister agreed to the formulation of a joint public/private sector working group to look broadly at construction issues.
The working committee, which Mr. Patterson directed to report back to him on February 13, 2002, was mandated to look at the diverse bits of legislation, policies, codes, and construction bodies, and demonstrate how they can be integrated into a construction industry that will be a foreign exchange earner for Jamaica.
At the moment, the Jamaica Bureau of Standards is attempting to finalise a new National Building Code for Jamaica; the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica has come up with its energy efficiency building code, which Noel DaCosta, president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, says is difficult to use and is to be simplified; the Joint Consultative Committee has its industry report called Construction Revival 2001; a policy draft on the industry has been crafted by the Office of the Prime Minister; the various professional associations and construction bodies have been pursuing various lobby efforts; and issues of standards and qualifications are to be agreed.
The working group's report is expected to inform the final draft of the policy paper, 'Towards the Development of a Construction Industry Policy' formulated recently by the OPM's Policy Analysis and Review Unit.
For private construction, it is a fundamental victory, a chance at putting directly to the Head of Government the sector's potential for national earnings, and having demonstrated it, to win state support in formalising construction as a real industry, similar to mining, tourism and others.
"In my mind, construction is not a legitimate industry; there are no central laws governing it, no laid-out format, no criteria set in law as to what a construction company should consist of," said Cedric Richards, president of the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica, and current chair of the JCC, an umbrella grouping of masterbuilders or building contractors, engineers, quantity surveyors, and architects that oversees the affairs of private construction.
The engineers, especially, have spoken up of the intellectual capacity that goes under-utilised in the sector, and the untapped opportunities for exporting that expertise.
H. 'Danny' Nembhard, immediate past president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, says there is sufficient information to indicate that construction could add 10 per cent to gross domestic product (GDP).
Planning Institute of Jamaica figures indicate consistently steady decline in Construction and Installation's contribution to GDP, from 8.4 per cent in 1996 to 7.6 per cent in 2000. During the five year period, the sector also experienced negative growth up to 1999, but grew marginally by 0.1 per cent in 2001.
PIOJ's projection is for the growth trend to continue, but private players where the decline is most evident, argue that Government's intervention is necessary for that to happen.
"We're expecting the establishment of a body to oversee the industry, and funding from the Government side," said Richards.
The Prime Minister has instructed that the committee - to be chaired by Calvin Grey, a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Utilities and Transport - must have all interests represented, he told the November Council meeting.
Industry sources say the committee which should start working before year-end, does have the potential to become unwieldy, but having got the ear of the Prime Minister, there is a commitment to having the report ready by the date he has set.
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Five-year contribution to GDP
2000 7.602%
1999 7.654%
1998 7.733%
1997 8.175%
1996 8.359%
