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| Sunday, 5 June 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Construction industry driving force in country's development by Don Asoka Wijewardena In the 21st century construction of buildings, houses, bridges and culverts using concrete structures with advanced technology is extremely important as the construction industry in Sri Lanka has emerged as a driving force in the development of the country, said Advanced Technology and National Enterprise Development Minister Rohitha Bogollagama at a seminar on "Rehabilitation of Concrete Structures" at the Hotel Continental recently. Minister Bogollagama said that the Budget 2004 of the UPFA government had allocated a substantial amount of funds for the construction of houses and infrastructure, especially in the rural development aspects and asked the Chamber of Construction Industry and the Construction Association whether they had made any progress in that regard. He also said that his ministry had already allowed people to import machinery required for the construction industry duty free and added that around 330 Divisional Secretariats would be ready to inform the CCI the use of connectivity in the respective areas where advanced technology was essential for the rehabilitation of bridges, culverts and buildings as a whole. CCI Chairman Surath Wickremasinghe said that the construction industry in Sri Lanka was still an informal sector which would focus its attention on micro enterprise development using both public and private sector funds. He also said that the overall incremental financing needs for tsunami reconstruction had been estimated around 1.5 million to 1.6 million US dollars equivalent to around 7 per cent of GDP or 1.5 times the islandwide capital Budget in Sri Lanka. CCI Director General Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya said that the recovery needs ran parallel to the level of damage sustained by each sector, but were generally higher given that the reconstruction strategy would not be based only on the replacement value of damaged assets but also on the required infrastructure which would often involve upgrades to specifically agreed standards. Thalgodapitiya said that the majority of resources were required for
housing, transportation infrastructure and livelihood restoration for
fishermen, small farmers and micro enterprises and added that in terms of
geographical allocation, the North and the East together would represent
about 60 per cent of the total financing needs. |
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