The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Weng C. Ocfemia
The government should encourage the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) as the country embarks on a massive infrastructure program in the next six years, Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (Pice) National President Ernesto de Castro said.
Dr. de Castro made the remark while attending an international roundtable meeting of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers held last week at Sendai City, Japan, where they discussed the topic “BIM for Infrastructure.”
De Castro, who sees the BIM as contributing toward the effort of building a stronger and sustainable Philippines, said the Philippine government should now seriously consider encouraging the use of BIM for both public- and private-sector projects and, after some time, make the same mandatory.
Unlike in more advanced countries where the BIM is now mandated for all public-sector projects, BIM awareness by the government sector in the Philippines is very low.
While “we already have the necessary components in place, we only need to re-align, so we can fully develop our BIM capability to service both local infrastructure requirements and the growing opportunities in the engineering services outsourcing (ESO) market,” de Castro said.
Together with the Philippine Technological Council and other professional councils in the Philippines, de Castro has proposed and is working on a “BIM Roadmap for the Philippines.”
“Many in the technological profession believe that all of us should embrace technology to accelerate development,” de Castro said, adding that the transformations in engineering education and training certification should not only include BIM and other new and emerging technologies, but also the entire lifecycle.
The Construction Manpower Development Foundation (CMDF) under the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines is looking at BIM certification programs, while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) are also considering upgrading their technical-drafting courses to BIM Modeler. Tedsa is also looking to explore the development of higher level qualifications for the TVET sector.
De Castro will also participate in this week’s roundtable discussion with CMDF and other stakeholders to establish a uniform construction human-resource data encompassing qualified professionals and skilled workers under the Construction Industry One Registry System.
Before leaving for Japan, de Castro met with members of the Information Technology and Business Process Management Association of the Philippines’ (Ibpap) Board of Trustees, who expressed its desire to collaborate and partner with the Association of Engineering Services Outsourcing of the Philippines (Aesop) that De Castro is initiating.