Executive director of the Dominica Coalition of Service Industries, Lester Riviere, is calling for more to be done to stimulate the construction industry on the island.
Addressing the annual general meeting of the Builders and Construction Association of Dominica (BCAD) on Tuesday evening, Riviere painted a bleak picture of the industry, noting that forecast for that sector is not very positive.
“The 2013 budget presentation indicated that the construction sector is estimated to have declined by 6.9 percent in 2012 after a growth of 4.5 percent in the previous year,” he pointed out.
Riviere further stated that an Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) economic review “indicated that the contruction activity slowed for the first three months of 2013 and this was attributed primarily to the completion or near end of major contstruction projects in the public sector.”
To make matters worst, the ECCB report also indicated a decline in the number and value of construction indicators for the private sector of 13.5 percent and 24.9 percent respectively, according to Riviere.
“Credit extended to the industry by commercial banks also experienced a decline,” he stated. “This contraction by extension led to a decline in activity in the mining and quarrying industries.”
Based on the reports Riviere noted that the forecast of the construction sector ‘is not very positive.’
“And immediate signs of significant turn around are not immediately on the horizon,” he remarked. “I will go further to add that there is data from the ECCB which supports this analysis and it indicates a constant negative trade balance from 2001 to 2013 … clearly more needs to be done to stimulate this industry so that it can contribute more signifantly to our economy.”
Meanwhile vice president of BCAD, Anthony Leblanc, wants more transparency and equity in public procurement practices.
“We need to maintain a constant vigil and lobby to ensure that public procurement falls within the requirements of the act (the Public Procurement Act),” he noted. “We need to maintain a vigil on foreign direct investment project and avenues of participation, we need to keep our eyes on geothermal and Chinese investments that we hear floating around, and we need to develop and adhere to a code of practice for member of BCAD engaged in procurement.”
He further stated that the private sector must be engaged to makes sure it adheres to basic principles of tendering.
“We need to penalize BCAD members who do not follow ethical codes, we need to boycott employers who do not follow the basic principles of tendering,” Leblanc argued. “We need to engage in massive public relations and public education especially to public homeowners who do not realize the risk to themselves by not having proper contracts and doing things properly.”
This simply means that contractors and construction personnel have to work much harder to satisfy their clients, whenever they obtain precious jobs on the island.
Their work ethic must also be above board.
For those crying about local employment and the influx of Chinese workers into Dominica, ask yourself this question:
Would the West Coast Road or any other major project have been completed if a Dominican Construction firm or Public Works were awarded these contracts?
The answer is no.
The money one needs to buy a piece of land and build a house makes you a slave to a financial institution forever … and many who were courageous enough to do it are “house poor”. Building is just too expensive! And I agree, something has to be done.
In all fairness, how can we hope to compete with Chinese contractors that may be employing Chinese prisoners?
I remember Jerry Brisbane challenging the Govt. on this and the responsible Min. at that time. Charles Savarin not denying it and merely saying that the Govt. had no information to that effect and that the contractor working on the West Coast road refurbishment was reputable. But is it not a fact that these labourers , all dressed in the same outfits, invariable all male, working saturdays and sundays, live in their own compounds without their families. Can the Govt, at least, confirm that they contribute to the Social Security fund whilst they are employed here? Are they free to join a local trade union, for example or do they too qualify for the min. local wage? Who holds their passports, if they have any, whilst they are here? There is absolutely no transparency on this subject.
Or is the case that, whilst we are clamouring for compensation from Western countries for the sufferings that may have been inflicted upon our forefathers because of slavery, we blatantly close our eyes to human exploitation right under our noses, simply because it suits us so and because they are not our own?
Mr Rivière and Mr Lablanc.
Hello and good afternoon my people. The biggest problem I see in Dominica in regards to construction is people building on land that don’t belong to them. I came home in 2009 to get a piece of land from my mother to build my home and we(my mother and I) were surprise that a distant family build a wooden house on the front portion of our land. So far it has cost me over twelve thousand dollars in lawyers fee to try and evict that person so how do you expect retired middle class people to come home and build our home when people can do what they want on land that don’t belong to them. How can companies hook up Light,Water, Telephone and Cable services to a home where that person don’t have paper for the land. So Mr Reviere and Mr Leblanc address that issue because I suspect that am not the only one who have to deal with such situation and that would help the construction industry.
This is a problem you take to physical planning and the government. Leblanc and Riviere cannot answer your question. Apples and Oranges.
Frenz.
Good morning to you. Hello planning can’t tell my Lawyer how this person was allowed to build on my mother land or if he has a house plan that’s file with them but they have my mother land survey on file. This has been going on since March of 2010 and the Court still cant make a decision . Now I can’t build my home in the village where I born because this man choose to build on land that don’t belong to him. Since Mr Rivière and Mr Leblanc represents the construction industry they should be lobbying the Government to put an end to such illegal construction because am sure that manny contractors/builders has run into similar situation after they received a contract to build a home.
There is an easy remedy, to a large extent in that utility companies should not be allowed to connect any premises to their services unless the applicant can prove that they have clean title/lease to the relevant property. If no such legislation currently exists, introduce it forthwith. I don’t think many people would argue with the probity of this.
You guys have to speak out boldly, and bravely…make sound statements…
This is a rather lazy and myopic analysis because it focuses solely on past trends and ignores planned projects that will get on the way within the current budget cycle. In fact, in the very same budget that Mr. Riviere quotes, we also find reasons to have a less pessimistic outlook for the construction industry. These can be found, for example, in the PM’s summary of the outlook, entitled : “ Blueprint for Growth and Job Creation”.
Notwithstanding the strength in considering current trends in the sector and related sectors, I would suggest that a more balanced analysis can be informed by a study of the GSPS (Dominica’s macro policy document) and the PM’s budget speech.
Yes, in forecasting, you look at trends, but you do not limit your analysis to these trends.
Unfortunately, Mr. Riviere’s analysis does not seem to go beyond a mere description of what has been.
uh ? Speak English fella or translate into Chinese.. One day your Saturday will arrive
“Who feels it knows” Every body want to have there own cake and eat it. the construction industry has collapsed. How are we going to pay back a loan as a country and we are not employed. Are we going to get a grant or a loan to pay back a loan? I am trying to do the Math and its not adding up. Dominica is not bringing in any revenue, people are not employed so they cant pay taxes, the local construction companies are not getting projects, so they cant afford to employ local trade-men and laborers, who in return are entitled to pay taxes. which are suppose to bring a return to the economy, which could be deducted from to pay back our dept. I don’t get it.
I guess the must have a diff
erent formula for their economy!!
Skerrit’s handlers and apologists can have a different opinion, but they cannot have different facts. We do not need the ECCB to tell us that the economy is in shambles, we see it around us every day. The ECCB facts are testimony that, the Chinese construction projects are having absolutely no direct positive impact on the economy. The only immediate impact is that of feeding Skerrit’s oversized ego and to bamboozle an unsuspecting populace. Apart from the concrete that we cannot eat, China gets to sell its products, gets paid and still collects interest on the loans they make and provide employment for its citizens. After all this disingenuous and acrimonious nonsense, Skerrit has the unmitigated gull to ask for a fourth term in office ?
Correction, I meant 3rd Term
You got all of this from a decline in construction jobs forecast?
What you expect when you have civil servants working for 20 plus years and cannot buy property neither build there homes. They have steady incomes.
Taxes on everything , the country needs tax but we the tax payers need tax break of some sort . Basic trading , ease tax on gasoline for fishermen will drop the price of fish , offer reduction on tax on building materials will boost construction sector , you don’t need to be a genius to see that .
Ebeh Weh – Dominica the only good news on the economy are the lies and chicanery coming from the apparatchik and mercenaries of the disgraceful Labor Party.
Who are they going to blame now – the world economy? So you brag about housing revolution yet the construction sector is the worse ever in our history as an independent country. So the government must explain but we don’t expect them to do so cause is mepwi they carry around.
Don’t worry. This corrupt government of greedy men and women will in 2014 be rejected, kicked, thrown away and dumped by the electorate.
THEY ARE THE WORST BUNCH THAT HAS EVER GOVERNED THIS COUNTRY.
“And immediate sign of significant turn around are not immediately on the horizon,”
“I will go further to add that there is data from the ECCB which supports this analysis and it indicates a constant negative trade balance from 2001 to 2013 … clearly more needs to be done to stimulate this industry so that it can contribute more signifantly to our economy.”
Oh boy those propagandists going to have to figure out a way to spin these hard facts but then they cannot deal with reality so they will attack the messengers.
Now note this is the status of our construction industry when the criminal enterprise boast about housing revolution and infrastructure. I will continue to say that the term housing revolution is just a phrase utilized by the Labor Party for propaganda purposes. We had a revolution in the construction Industry from the 1983 thru 2000. I can talk about this cause I experienced it. Note also that the biggest infrastructure development also took place from 1980 thru 1990 – no doubt. So when we hear the liars in the Labor Party talking about infrastructure many of them know that they are lying to the people. Ask Charles Saverin and Timothy for an honest opinion.
So the situation is not even forecasting an improvement; Dominicans brace yourself cause guess who is in control- See no evil and hear no evil ( Gene Wider and Richard Pryor ) – the blind and the dumb
I know Right, with 3000 jobs lost in Barbados, Grenada back to the IMF, St Lucia in a tight grip I expect almost the same situation across the ECCB as the guy stated.
What is gonna turn around the world economy???