One of the approved technical standards establishes the chemical, physical, and performance requirements of general and specialty cements for both imported and locally produced products.
Ministerial resolutions also include packaging, transportation, storage and use requirements. The standard can be purchased by the interested public at the Standards Information Center of the General Directorate of Standards and Technology of MICI, an official source reported.
An estimated 7,000 tons of cement from the Asian country have already entered the country, a product that is still stored and waiting to be commercialized.
Businessmen of the sector warn that norms and quality standards need to be established to regulate the entry into the country of imported material, which will compete with local production.
Construction companies are asking the Mayoral Office of Panama for an extension of the Preliminary Construction Permit, which allows work to be carried out on projects and which expires this month.
The Panamanian Chamber of Construction (CAPAC) has asked the director of Municipal Works and Constructions (DOyCM) at the Mayor's Office of Panama, Antonio Docabo, to extend the term for the Preliminary Construction Permit (PPI), the institution said in a statement.
The plan put forward by the Panamanian government will define, in the cities of Panama and Colon, areas that can be used as development poles, and establish risk zones in which interventions are not allowed.
The Ministry of Housing and Territorial Planning (Miviot) presented the Urban Development Plan for the Metropolitan Areas of the Pacific and the Atlantic, and through a statement reported that "...
Due to the excess of procedures that developers have to carry out in order to realise a construction project in Costa Rica, it is estimated that some 5 thousand homes fail to be built every year.
The Costa Rican Chamber of Construction presented a study entitled "Economic contribution of the construction sector and the impact of the excess of procedures", and one of its main conclusions was that the bureaucratic processes in the country "... can generate average delays of 7.4 months in private construction projects and 13.5 months in social interest housing."
The growth in the supply of real estate, especially housing for middle and upper classes, represents an opportunity to do business with Salvadoran hardware stores and real estate developers.
From the Procomer report "Opportunity for construction finishes in El Salvador":
Although El Salvador is the eighth largest commercial partner for Costa Rican exports in general, with an increasing trend of 6% compared to 2016 and with a good positioning of products from several sectors, the experience in sales of construction finishes is still incipient.
Abusive clauses, breach of contract and lack of information, are the three main reasons cited in consumer complaints against real estate companies in Panama.
Between January and April of this year, the Authority for Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition (Acodeco) handled 255 complaints against real estate agents, for a total amount of $19 million.
The construction industry registered a decrease of 10%, due, according to data from the Central Bank, to less bank financing and to an excess of bureaucratic procedures.
The trend cycleseries of the quarterly indicator of meters built decreased 10.3% in the fourth quarter of 2017, which is due to less construction of non-residential and residential buildings (-5.1%, -15.1%, in the same order).
In Panama the trade union claims that there are now 180 procedures which must be carried out with 20 different institutions in order to obtain the necessary permits for a construction project.
An excess of procedures and requirements that must be completed in order to develop real estate projects in the country remains one of the main problems affecting the development of the construction sector in Panama.A study prepared at the request of the Panamanian Chamber of Construction (CAPAC) reveals that"... there has been a decrease in the number of building permits, a reduction in the number of mortgages and a high inventory of high-cost apartments and offices."
The number of works grew by 4.2% compared to 2015, mainly explained by the 16% increase in the province of San Jose and 11% in Guanacaste.
From a report by the INEC:
In 2016, the number of works increased by 4.2% compared to 2015.Overall there was an increase for all provinces, the greatest increase was in the province of San José with 16.4%, followed by Guanacaste with 10.5%.
More requirements for mortgage loans and an obligation for condo developers to assume the costs of the installation of a medium voltage power grid.
Another of the new regulations preoccupying entrepreneurs in the construction sector, because of the impact it could have on real estate development, is to do with airspace, with building height being potentially limited. Added to this is also the problem of availability of water in different areas in the country.
It has been announced that in the coming weeks publication will be made of a new national building code, which is divided into different documents according to the type of material used.
Maycol Rugama, from the Department of Studies and Technology Construction Standards at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI), told Laprensa.com.ni that with this update documents will be separated into different standards for reinforced concrete, masonry, structural steel and electricwire systems."
The construction sector is concerned about an initiative announced by the government to amend the building code and incorporate standards to save energy in new buildings.
The head of the National Secretariat of Energy, Victor Urrutia, announced that he will present an executive decree to amend the current legislation in order to incentivise the construction sector to focuses on saving energy.
In the first quarter 1455 new works started construction processes in the district of Panama, up 8% compared to the same period in 2015.
From the census report on Construction of Buildings by the Comptroller:
For the first quarter of 2016, the Census of Construction of Buildings recorded 1,455 new works which began the construction process in the district of Panama, an increase of 7.9 percent compared with the same period last year, which included 1,348 works ; in contrast, in the district of San Miguelito the number of works was 57 decreasing by 5.0 percent compared with the previous year.