Architects commend Premier

by Edward Arambewela

Architects have commended the SLFP Presidential candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse for an assurance he had given them early this year when he attended the 22nd National Conference on Architecture that the Government will take all necessary steps to safeguard the interests of Local Architects by giving them priority over foreign professionals in foreign funded projects, says SLIA.

Prime Minister had been the chief guest at this conference which was held at the BMICH in Feb. 2005.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA) has written to the Prime Minister last week thanking him for this assurance given and calling upon him to include that in his election manifesto, as it is a very vital issue for the profession not given due consideration by any Government.

The SLIA has also drawn the attention of the UNP Presidential candidate to this issue. The SLIA President Architect Rukshan Vidyalankara in a communication to the two Presidential candidates in this regard states:

"The SLIA which has a membership of 589 Chartered Architects is on par with any foreign professional consultants in the building industry."

Almost all its members have both foreign and local qualifications from recognised academic and professional bodies. The majority of the members are young midstream professionals with immense performance potential.

The SLIA wants the next Government to adopt the following measures with regard the local architectural professionals.

Ensure Sri Lankan Architects given the lead consultancy in foreign funded projects. Ensuring meaningful exchange of technology wherever participation of foreign consultants become inevitable, strictly adopt Government Tender procedure for procurement of consultancy services, and the same conditions to apply for public sector consultancy as well, provide equal opportunity to the private and public sector consultancy services as well and implement a methodology for the capacity building of local consultancy organisations to meet the future challenges.