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| Sunday, 17 March 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Use local expertise in building projects - Construction Chamber by INDUNIL THENUWARA Urban regeneration has been identified by the Chamber of Construction Industry as a priority as most of the prime land in Colombo is under-utilised. President of the Chamber Surath Wickramasinghe believes that such land could be put to better use by relocating warehouses and some of the public sector offices and planning of the tenement and other run-down areas pertaining to the North, Central and North East of Colombo. Besides having more land for housing, commercial and office development, land for entertainment, leisure and recreation activities necessary for a modern city could be accommodated this way. These projects could be implemented as public and private partnerships with the government playing a facilitating role. The city's infrastructure specially in the areas of waste disposal, drainage and water supply need to be upgraded. A programme to rehabilitate the utility infrastructure of the City should commence immediately. Urban regeneration could be accelerated by networking the country's North, South, East and West by an expressway configuration, Wickramasinghe, who is the Chairman of Surath Wickramasinghe Associates told the Sunday Observer. Speaking on the practice in Sri Lanka of handing over large scale construction projects to foreign contractors at the expense of locals, Wickramasinghe said this must stop if the local industry is to develop. "Locals must be given a sufficient amount of work. If local expertise is not enough for the job, the local party should be asked to use the services of a foreign company as a subcontractor and not vice versa as is the case here," he said. Even with regard to foreign donor agency funded projects, the government should insist that an adequate portion of the work be given to local consultants and contractors within their capability. The balance inputs could be obtained through foreigners. "These issues should be discussed at the time of negotiations," he said. At the moment local companies are involved in major projects only as subcontractors. Where local expertise is available, the government must ensure that they have work so that transfer of technology also takes place. Local involvement should be on a partnership basis and not on a subcontracting basis. "For example, we are expected to get assistance from other countries for rehabilitation work in the North and East. Local companies are capable of handling these projects and since they are aware of the historical, cultural and traditional requirements, they can carry out these projects more successfully. This would be cheaper for the donors too. The Government should impress upon the donor countries the fact that local expertise is available for these," Wickramasinghe said. The Chamber is also of the view that the government, before embarking on major projects, should discuss them with the relevant business chambers, professionals, industrialists, academics and civil society. "The government will be able to make balanced decisions this way. Otherwise this could result in financial losses and damage to the environment," he said. He said that according to international funding agencies, 88 per cent of the foreign funds allocated for local projects have not been utilised even when local funding counterparts were available. Many of these projects have not got off the ground due to inadequate pre-planning, archaic tender procedures and administrative regulations. "We need to deregularise and streamline these procedures so these projects can be implemented," he said. "The Chamber also believes that there will be difficulties with regard to the anticipated rapid development of the construction industry and the economy due to lack of financial resources with the government. If we are to achieve a six to eight per cent growth rate within the next two years, immediate measures must be taken to find alternative strategies for the private sector to embark on viable projects," Wickramasinghe said. |
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