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If Sri Lanka is to seek foreign expertise for construction projects and utilise its own funds, the country should go for the best Consultancy Firms in the world, President, Chamber of Construction Industry (CCI) Surath Wickramasinghe said.

By this the image of Sri Lanka could be enhanced and be comparable with the most modern cities in the region. This is exactly what the Middle Eastern countries and even Singapore, Malaysia and China have done and are doing at present, he said.

The construction industry is reviving slowly after the severe slump over the past four to five years. Part of the Southern Highway Project has commenced and several other projects that were in the pipeline are now getting into a more positive mode towards implementation. The interest among foreign investors from several countries is encouraging. The trend that is building is primarily private sector oriented and if the public sector stops vacillating and facilitates approvals, with land and infrastructure facilities expeditiously the Construction Industry and the economy could turn around much faster, Wickramasinghe said.

A plan for the development of the Western Province is to be prepared, along with the development of the Wellawatte Mills Site and a few other projects. "Our Chamber is fully supportive and is in agreement with the Government that these projects should be implemented without delay. This is the only way that we could re-activate the construction industry and transform the Western Province to be a futuristic city and be competitive with our neighbours in Asia, he said.

However, serious repercussions detrimental to the members of our Chamber particularly in the Planning, Architectural and Engineering professions are anticipated. Several Government Agencies are in the process of introducing Mediocre Foreign Planning and Architectural Firms to prepare a Western Regional Plan and also to undertake Real Estate Development projects. These firms are not of international repute and in that context certain Sri Lankan firms are better and more experienced than these foreign firms," Wickramasinghe said.

Therefore, Sri Lanka should look at the best firms in the world. If not another practice that some countries follow is for local firms to collaborate with foreign firms once again with the best in the world and participate in open competitions. The selection is made independently by an international jury to ensure that fairplay and justice prevails. Why cannot Sri Lanka follow this practice? If so there would then be technology transfer and the end result would be a 21st century product.

The payment to the best firms of the world are the same as the rates being now negotiated by the government agencies to pay the 20th century firms referred to above.

No alternative firms to the best of our knowledge were consulted by the government agencies prior to selecting these firms. This type of action by the government destroys the enthusiasm and aspirations of the local professionals and the private sector who are waiting to launch after the recent downturn in the construction sector.In the recent past several major projects were initiated in the cultural, residential, highway and urban development sector by the previous government, where millions of dollars were paid to consultants and contractors and these projects were subsequently aborted. This is extremely tragic and unfortunate since nobody seems to be held accountable for this expenditure.

One of the primary reasons why the Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka was formed by the allied professions and the Contractors was to highlight anomalies of this nature. Due to the fantasies of politicians the members of the Construction Industry comprising consultants, contractors, skilled and unskilled workers, suppliers and manufacturers of building materials are undergoing severe hardships with the scarcity of work and consequently are at the mercy of the Banks due to delays in the settlement of their dues by the government. In the government's policy initiative 'Regaining Sri Lanka', several major projects to be implemented have been highlighted.

Accordingly over US$ 3 billion has been pledged by the donor countries on the basis of US$ one billion per year. The Chamber has been regularly pointing out to the ministers and officials concerned that to get the best value from this huge fund there should be several integrated Development Plans and Projects designed and ready for implementation not only for the North and East but also for other parts of the country.

He said that the Chamber is not aware of any comprehensive plans besides the sectoral assessments for the North and East identified in the 'Post Conflict Needs Assessment Survey' by the donors and the projects mentioned in the 'Regaining Sri Lanka' document which are not detailed in any way. It would therefore be optimistic to believe that even 25% of the funds pledged by the donor countries being utilised for these reasons.

Our inability to utilise these funds fully may mean that we have overlooked an important opportunity, after many years of stagnation.The Chamber is geared to work in partnerships with the Government to accelerate the decision-making and implementation process of several projects mentioned in the 'Regaining Sri Lanka' document.

"However, the inability to act on time may affect the construction industry to a level of mere spectators watching our projects being hijacked by foreign companies for no fault of ours," he said.

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