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| Sunday, 17 April 2005 |
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Practical solutions to problems in construction industry by Don Asoka Wijewardena Fluctuating construction workload, unfair competition by foreign contractors, skills drain and shortages and high cost of developing skills were the main identified problems faced by the Domestic Construction Industry, said National Advisor GTZ Value Chain Promotion Component and Chairman State Engineering Corporation (SEC) Gratian Peiris. He was addressing a workshop on Construction Industry Value Chain Analysis and Development of a Strategy Outline organised by the Chamber of Construction Industry with the assistance of the German Technical Co-operation at the Hotel Trans Asia. Peiris said the primary objective of the workshop was to enlighten personnel attached to the construction industry by identifying each and every problem and add value to them with practical solutions. He said that tsunami reconstruction, North and East reconstruction, regular development work, private sector construction and deficit in houses had become some of the challenges of the Sri Lanka construction industry and added that those challenges could be met by entrepreneurial drive, sound structure, exposure to foreign contractors and consultants, established linkages and the right mixture of contractors. Senior Advisor, Value Chain Promotion Project Colombo Peter Richter said that in the wake of the tsunami Sri Lanka's construction industry had been experiencing bottlenecks in almost all sections of the industry and noted that the only solution to that problem would be to introduce "Value Chain Approach" to streamline the whole process in the industry. Referring to the value chain, he said that the value chain approach was a scientific problem solving technique which would identify and solve the problems by adding value. He also said that the value chain approach had been extremely helpful to face challenges and work together in the interest of the entire construction industry. Senior Advisor to the Private Sector Division of Trade and Support Services International Trade Centre, Geneva Ian Sayers said that ITC was a joint body which had been working with the private sector to create more competitive industries all over the world. Referring to Sri Lanka's construction industry he said that building a prosperous future for the construction industry was absolutely necessary as potential contractors as well as clients had shown a deep reluctance to engage in the industry following natural calamities. Planning a capacity would be a pipeline for growth, he said. Richter said that to achieve optimal performance for higher values it was essential to eradicate lack of synergy, primitive primary industry,poor off site sector, poor project management skills and technology gap. The focus of the industry should enhance more effective use of scarce resources for improved profitability with application and analysis of the value chain and drafting a strong action plan to properly manage the construction industry. A number of public and private sector contractors, building materials suppliers, consultancy bureau officials, architects and civil engineers also participated. |
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