Sanken Overseas looks back at a year’s growth as the Presidential Export Awards closes

Growing up in a village, Jinendra saw his parents selling coconuts to merchants for a living. At school, he learnt that Sri Lanka’s main exports were coconuts, tea, and rubber and felt proud that the coconuts that grew on the coconut trees surrounding his house ended up in a foreign country. But as a young adult, he came to know of a different export avenue picking up in Sri Lanka: the export of professional services.

Rather than spending his life as a ‘tuk-tuk’ driver, Jinendra wanted to enter the lucrative opportunities presented by the professional service exportation. He had a question; how to enter the industry?

While it is true that individually Sri Lankans can and do go overseas in search of employment, there is a Sri Lankan construction company that operates overseas who welcome the skills and talents of Sri Lankans to complete their projects.

Sanken Overseas (Pvt) Ltd is a Sri Lankan based company that has spread its wings beyond Sri Lanka, exporting professional services, and bringing in foreign revenue to the country, while providing lucrative career opportunities to the Sri Lankan youth. A subsidiary of Sanken Construction (Pvt) Ltd, Sanken Overseas came to being in 2004, and since then, has established its presence in a number of countries.

With a staggering number of employees under its belt, and over a decade of knowledge, expertise and experience to strengthen its foundations, Sanken Overseas remains the first Sri Lankan contractor to venture into foreign construction indus- tries. Repeating its triumphant performance at the 20th Presidential Exports Awards, Sanken Overseas took home the Highest Value Added Exporter award in the Construction Services Sector for the years 20162017 at the recently concluded 21st Presidential Exports Awards.

Sanken Overseas footprint is present in over 10 countries including Kenya, Uganda, Qatar, Maldives, and Myanmar. The company has created myriad job opportunities to young men like Jinendra at construction sites building resorts, commercial buildings, power plants, hospitals, and other projects.

Mr B. B. Kulupana- Chief Executive Officer/ Managing Director of Sanken Overseas; Mr Mevan Gunatileke- Executive Director; and Mr Ravindra Wijesooriya- Head of Administration at Sanken Overseas joined Sunday Times at a panel discussion, where the company’s present, its future, as well as the issues faced by the industry were discussed at length.

The following is an excerpt of the discussion. The numerous awards and accolades that Sanken Overseas hold is a testament to your success. What are the factors that have gone into your achievements? Kulupana- I have to point out the unique features that are the reasons for achieving these awards and accolades. The retained knowledge- most of our staff, we take care of them, and they remain in the company and the knowledge that they carry remain in the company, because of that very quickly we can train young engineers and empower them to reach our targets. We also give priority to discipline and ethics in the company, which helps us to carry out operations without internal issues. By empowering the staff, they are ready for the challenging markets, they can identify issues in advance and address them in advance. That is why our profit margins align as we plan, we are always keeping our goals in sight. Gunatileke- Going in line with that, the theme of our motto is ‘win-win situation for both us and our clients. And also we don’t compromise our quality by competing with other contractors. In most of our contracts, we ask the client what are their expectations in terms of quality and budget. And as for our knowledge, we share it with our client, to help the client to achieve their objectives. What are the countries you have expanded to over the years? Kulupana- Permanently we are in Uganda, Kenya, Maldives, Qatar, and Myanmar. We are also present in a few other countries such as Tonga Island, Solomon, and on the other side in Africa. We have done a few projects, but the market is not there to set up offices. What are the challenges that you have to face when operating in other countries? Kulupana- There are systems different to our culture, country to country. For instance, in Myanmar, apart from the engineers, and the architects, all the workers are locals. When it comes to operations, from the government, presently what we are following is the same system we had a few years back. There is no special consideration given to this industry. We have to work with a lot of red tapes. With the present developments, we can see a lot of red tapes coming further. Then we will lose our market. We are losing opportunities in the foreign markets because we are struggling with the VAT issues. Gunatileke- it’s not like material exports, we are exporting combined services- material and professional services. The government has introduced a new tax, which came as a big hit; it came suddenly, and a lot of countries does not have double taxation agreements with Sri Lanka. The problem is not paying the taxes, the problem is that subsequently, we have to increase our prices, then we risk losing the jobs, and at the end of the day, the country will lose the foreign exchange. Kulupana- Sanken as a group is surviving, but I don’t think a newcomer will be tempted to go overseas. If the government can arrange double taxation, both countries benefits. In such a climate, what does it mean to receive this award? Kulupana- We simply did our job, we didn’t look for it. We do appreciate the encouragement that these awards give out. But more than the award, the government can do a lot to encourage the industry. What are the potentials in the industry? Gunatileke- This is where the future is. In the colonial days, we exported tea, rubber, and coconut. Now, if you look at the talent pool in Sri Lanka, this is the real export. That is why we believe that the government should take a policy decision to encourage the services sector. If Sri Lankans can go overseas and work for a Sri Lankan company, that revenue flows back to the country. Gunatileke- On certain projects, we find it difficult to get, but on a government level, we can get joint ventures. There is a trend where people prefer to simply own and drive a three-wheeler and generate income through that rather than joining the construction sector. How is the availability of manpower in the industry considering this? Gunatileke- There is still a social stigma attached to joining the construction industry. It is more lucrative than becoming three-wheel drivers. But people don’t consider the salary, they consider the image. Kulupana- In certain of our projects, we have to use people from those countries now. Previously we used 100% Sri Lankans, but now we have to look elsewhere to find workers. Sanken has established its own training institute. How does that help to encourage and train young people to join the industry? Wijesooriya- What we have found is that it is very difficult to find young people to join the industry. It needs a government initiative to drive them to industries such as Construction where they will prosper in terms of skillfulness & monetary values in future. How does Sanken Overseas find workers? Wijesooriya- When we get a project, we hire Sri Lankan workers via registered (with Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau) labour companies. We provide air tickets, Food and accommodation, Emergency Medical, Insurance for all the workers, working at our sites. Last, can you tell me about the projects that you have doen so far? Kulupana- At present, we have 16 on-going projects, and we have completed over 50 projects.