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| Sunday, 4 September 2005 |
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SMEs role vital in construction industry by Gamini Warushamana The Chamber of Construction Industry (CCI) has reiterated the urgent need for massive development in the infrastructure of the country. "You can't develop a country without developing infrastructure and a 8-10% economic growth rate would be a dream without infrastructure development", said CCI President Surath Wickramasinghe. The CCI is now working on a national policy to develop infrastructure with the participation of local and foreign experts. Identifying the crucial role of the SME sector in the construction industry and the development of infrastructure in the country, the CCI with the support of the German Technical Cooperation has organised a trade fair "Buyers sellers meet and SME fair" for the construction industry, from October 14 to 16 at the BMICH. The CCI had organised several trade fairs in the past to introduce the latest technology to the industry and a special feature of this fair is the participation of the SME sector with big players, Wickramasinghe said. The gap between SMEs and big players in the construction industry is one of the main reasons for the prevailing inefficiency in the sector. The CCI hopes to introduce small contractors and specialised contractors to the trade at the fair, Wickramasinghe said. Chairman of the State Engineering Corporation Gratian Peiris said that 60-65% of the supplies of the construction industry come from the SME sector and improving the quality of these supplies is a crying need. For this purpose the SME sector has to be linked with large contractors. Today the SME sector cannot compete with large contractors and in tsunami re-construction, small contractors cannot get contracts from donor agencies. To bridge the gap a useful partnership has to be built between the big local players, international contractors and the SME sector and the CCI is doing this, Peiris said. Multinational banks, commercial banks, NGOs, INGOs and all stakeholders will take part in the fair. Foreign companies will also participate and Indian and Malaysian companies have already expressed their interest. The CCI said that the construction industry in the country is far behind the rest of the world - 20-30 years. The weakness of the sector is demonstrated in the present phase of the tsunami re-construction. Thousands of new houses and several billions worth of construction work is in progress. There is a huge demand for building materials, fixtures and fittings but the country is using traditional construction methods and material. |
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