International exposure to compete with other countries vital:

Sri Lanka has potential to capture global construction market

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The country has the potential to capture the global construction market and international exposure is necessary to compete with other countries, Chief Executive Officer/Secretary General, Chamber of Construction Industry Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya told Daily News Business.

“What our construction industrialists lack is the experience in handling mega scale global construction projects. They should be encouraged to secure sub-contracts to gain experience to become the main contractors”, he said.

The Chamber pioneered the first trade delegation to Qatar in 2007 followed by another delegation to the UAE in 2008. There are many opportunities for Sri Lankan construction industry professionals in the fields of architecture, quantity surveying and engineering. There are several local professionals working in Dubai, Qatar and Oman at present, he said.

The Chamber’s efforts to promote the country’s construction industry internationally should be supported by the Government together with private sector participation. To meet international demand, careful planning and reasonable time is necessary to establish linkages, he said.

There is a drop in the demand in the Gulf region due to the global recession. We need to wait till the Gulf economy picks up. There would be a positive impact on the local construction industry with the recession slowing down and we could expect a demand for our industrialists in the near future, he said.

Excon 2009 - Exposition for the Construction Industry will be the first international construction exhibition with over 300 trade stalls to be held from October 30 - November 1 at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre organized by the Chamber of Construction Industry. “Over 60 foreign industrialists have confirmed participation.

The exhibition would focus on property developers to resurrect abandoned properties and development projects to facilitate the sale of completed apartments. It also intends to attract direct foreign investors, local financial institutions and potential buyers under one roof”, he said.

The accredited representative of the domestic construction industry has designed “Excon 2009”, the sixth in the series of trade fairs presented by the Chamber to enhance the capabilities and competitiveness of construction industrialists.

The exhibition will showcase and introduce cost effective, environment friendly and alternative construction technologies and materials, building linkages between the SME sector and regional contractors with major constituents and overseas contractors. It will promote the export of construction related professional services and contracting capacities and facilitate foreign direct investments in infrastructure development, urban regeneration and other construction related projects.