Excon Batticaloa on Saturday:

Construction Chamber enhances provincial development

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The Construction Industry Chamber is committed to support regional construction industry development with special emphasis on conflict affected areas.

Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya

It is important that regional industry stakeholders play a more prominent role in infrastructure development and construction related projects in their respective regions, Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka Chief Executive Officer/Secretary General Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya told Daily News Business.

The chamber plays the facilitator role in enhancing provincial development.

“We intend organizing construction related trade fairs in Jaffna in July this year. The President has specifically focused his attention on training of construction craftsmen and has set a target of manpower resource of 25,000 craftsmen within the next few years.

The Chamber is launching a construction craftsmen training program in Batticaloa with a deliverable output of 4,500 craftsmen within three years, he said.

The SME sector accounts for more than 95 percent of construction contractors required for business development services to enhance their capabilities and competitiveness. The Chamber has already started a series of workshops and seminars and similar training programs are being identified for regions as well.

The assistance from multilateral development banks is solicited for the successful implementation.

It is important to encourage and equip large contractors to undertake construction work outside Sri Lanka. This could be achieved by improved environment.

“The Chamber takes the lead role in encouraging construction companies to adopt environment management systems which will result in construction industry stakeholders obtaining ISO 14000 accreditation,” he said.

The Chamber launched a series of regional construction trade fairs with the hosting of the first event in Trincomalee in February.

The next exhibition will be held on May 8 and 9 in Batticaloa.

Excon Batticaloa will be hosted in collaboration with Batticaloa district Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Construction Association of Sri Lanka Batticaloa branch.

“We are exposing the local stakeholders of the construction industry to new products, machinery and technology by hosting these regional trade fairs. We believe that building linkages between regional industry stakeholders and bigger players from Colombo and outside the region is a necessary strategy to facilitate the development of the regional players,” Thalgodapitiya said.