Local industry laments foreign firms get more construction projects
Though there is a re-awakening of the construction industry in Sri Lanka with mega projects and high rises, the local construction industry persistently complain that they are sidelined while contracts for these mega projects are usually awarded to multinational companies.
This was reiterated by Dr, Rohan Karunaratne, Chairman, Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB), adding that at least 25 per cent of the contracts are given to multinationals. He was speaking in the presence of Patali Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Megapolis and Western Development at the launch of the Construction Expo 2018 at the Galadari Hotel on Tuesday.
The exhibition is to be held on June 29, 30 and July 1 at the BMICH bringing together suppliers and service providers in the building, construction, engineering and architecture industry.
China is sending a strong 50- member delegation led by the Business Department of Liaoning Province and Shenyang Zhongqiao International Exhibition Co Ltd. Among other foreign delegates expected to attend are construction industry specialists from Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and Japan.
Dr. Karunaratne said that they have introduced lean construction rating of buildings, building materials and building services in Sri Lanka and appreciated that more and companies are taking up the green mark for recognition of their buildings and services. They intend to bring down cost effective technologies and have launched the South Asian Green Construction Institute (SAGCI), to achieve these goals.
He said that Sri Lankan construction cost is higher than neighbouring countries and some of the major factors leading to their inability to compete with multination’s could be identified as high production cost, labour cost, taxes for materials.
“Our construction industry has matured and has begun to undertake large scale projects in the country,” he emphasised, but indicated that it is unfortunate that they have to face stiff competition from multinational construction companies in the mega construction development field.
Further, he noted that the local firms are finding it difficult to compete with the multinationals as they have a vast amount of resources and equipment, international experience in implementing such large projects in their countries and overseas.
He indicated that CIOB as the representative body of Sri Lanka construction com- panies is working towards forming a mechanism to form joint ventures to meet these kind of large scale projects.
Minister Ranawaka conceded that they were late to begin green construction projects in 2017 and planned more green mark certification with certified projects in 2018. He commended the inputs to improve the green building concepts in Sri Lanka. He said that in the Port City by now 60 per cent of the reclamation work has been completed and the final project would emerge in 2025.
He said that the government is now insisting all construction activities to be under the green construction concept and appreciated the work of CIOB to achieve this end and ahead of the launch of the Green Building Master Plan. He said that they are providing guidelines to adopt green procedures for the reclamation work at the Port City Project.