PayMaya Philippines, Inc. is now an official partner in automating the transactions of the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB), particularly its pilot on online contractor’s license renewal portal (pcabgovph.com) that serves around 15,000 contractors all over the country.
The service of PayMaya is an additional digital payment option for contractors aside from the existing Land Bank LinkBiz Portal.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by the Department of Trade and Industry, PayMaya, Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), and Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) authorizes PayMaya to be a digital collecting agent for the services of Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) starting with the PCAB Online license renewal.
With this integration with PayMaya, users will have a more convenient payment option since they will now be allowed to pay within the PCAB website for license renewal itself, using credit, debit, and prepaid cards as well as with their PayMaya-registered mobile number. Upon PayMaya’s collection of the renewal fees from the contractors, Land Bank of the Philippines will serve as the settlement bank, which will then remit the payments to the Bureau of the Treasury.
“At PayMaya, we have always been supportive of the government’s continued pursuit of providing efficient, transparent, and accessible services to the public with the help of digital payments. We are delighted to assist DTI-CIAP in their digital transformation journey, enabling them to offer much-need services to various industry stakeholders as well as allowing Filipino contractors to transact safely and conveniently from their homes, especially in light of our current public health situation,” said PayMaya Founder and CEO Orlando Vea.
PCAB, with the assistance from USAID DELIVER Project, has successfully integrated an end-to-end digital payment system for the said online renewal facility to further promote efficiency in the license renewal process.
“We are happy to continue pursuing modern services for the benefit of our industry stakeholders.”
“The service of PayMaya is a welcome digital payment option for contractors. We are happy to continue pursuing modern services for the benefit of our industry stakeholders, as we can help them reallocate their time from applying licenses and permits to growing their businesses thus paving more avenues for job creation,” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
In the recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Rodrigo Duterte underscored his call to simplify processes for government transactions in line with the pandemic situation as well as the ease-of-doing-business in the country.
“I reiterate my call for all government instrumentalities to implement systems that shall make physical queuing a thing of the past,” Duterte said.
“This initiative and the online renewal platform system manifest the commitment of the national government to lead the way in digital transformation and compliance with the Ease of Doing Business Law.” Lopez added.
CIAP Alternate Chairman and DTI Undersecretary Ireneo Vizmonte proudly announced that “this MOA complements the effort of CIAP in modernizing its services as we have committed last January 8 this year, together with the PCA and all relevant stakeholders, to work on 30 action plans for the next 10 years.”
The 30 action plans were set to realize the full economic and employment potential of the construction industry and achieve the government’s vision declared in the Philippine Construction Industry Roadmap 2020-2030: Global Partners in Building Nations.
“One important action agenda is the modernization of the services across the whole organizational umbrella of the DTI-CIAP, and a large part of that is the simplification and automation of contractor’s license applications,” Vizmonte added.
“[This] is a momentous event as we formally launch our partnership between the online renewal system application with PCAB and PayMaya. This online platform of PCAB was only developed in four weeks’ time as the urgency of finding alternative mechanisms for the efficient delivery of services, despite the pandemic we are all experiencing, is of primary importance,” said PCAB Chairman Dr. Pericles Dakay in his MOA signing speech.
“Working with the kind assistance and the generosity of the USAID-DELIVER Project, we are able to design an operational system for license renewal applications which went live last June 2, 2020,” Dakay added.
Since its launching, there have been 8950 sign ups, signaling that the PCAB Online Renewal Portal has gained traction and support from the contractors. As of August 7, PCAB has renewed and released around 5,000 digital contractors’ licenses out of 5,593 online submissions.
The Philippine Contractors Association (PCA), PCAB’s long-time private sector collaborator, voiced their support on this endeavor as they commit to continue working with the government in improving business transactions through online systems that harness e-commerce like PCAB’s online contractor’s license renewal portal.
“We are happy to continue pursuing modern services for the benefit of our industry stakeholders.”
“Every partnership is monumental. Our members are happy with this and challenge us to deliver even better. It is always rewarding to see how we create solutions together, as we shift from the usual or conventional to convenient way of making transactions,” PCA President Wilfredo Dacena said.
“PCA will continue to work with the government to make the industry stronger. We keep looking forward to the continued partnership especially as we work together in emerging from this crisis,” Dacena added.
The whole PCAB licensing system is still undergoing a continuous process of improvement.
“Our resolve is to work with our stakeholders, as we continue reviewing and developing better systems covering all our other transactions, to cater and benefit all contractors,” assured Executive Director Atty. Herbert DG. Matienzo.
More e-payment options will be integrated and made available soon for faster and more convenient transactions as DTI-CIAP, PCAB, and USAID continue working to improve the system and collaborating for the future automations of other transactions such as new applications for license, upgrading of license category, consortium and joint venture applications.
CIAP is an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry.