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| Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
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Development projects: Private sector involvement vital-CCISL by Elmo Leonard Following the budget, the government must commence without delay the building of infrastructure facilities such as the proposed major highways, harbours, power and water sectors, the Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka (CCISL) said. The funds for the purpose should come from the enormous amounts of unutilised money in the state banks, CCISL President, Surath Wickremasinghe, said. The private sector must be brought in enmasse, making use of its financial and human resources. The chamber noted that most of the proposals it had made to the Minister of Finance prior to the budget, have been included in principle. However, the CCISL membership had many other proposals to make on the implementation of the budget. An instance being that the available transport facilities in the country were highly inadequate for an accelerated economic growth. The road network had not been expanded adequately and even the existing roads had not been maintained properly. These problems in the transport sector adversely affect the overall economic growth by discouraging investment and constraining productive activity. With the poor having inadequate access to markets to sell their produce, poverty prevails, Wickremasinghe said. The government realising the necessity for road development had prepared a comprehensive programme for it. But, the private sector must be brought into its implementation, from funding to building. This would create more than one million jobs as envisaged in the budget, CCISL CEO, Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya, said. With such activity generated in the country, the cultivation of the 200,000 hectares of unutilised land could be undertaken, the Minister said. The chamber wants the local construction industry to be awarded the lion share of the construction work in the country. Where funds and technology are inadequate and foreigners given the work, local construction companies should be hired as subcontractors, Wickremasinghe said. It should be mandatory that foreign contractors pay taxes, or else they will have an advantage in the tenders they submit. The chamber proposes that a levy of a three-tiered CESS be imposed on construction contractors at the point of final payment. The money should be credited to a Construction Development Fund and maintained with the Institute of Construction Training and Research Development (ICTARD). The fund should be for the specific purpose of developing the industry and be managed by a board or body with representation from the domestic construction industry. |
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