Sri Lanka’s construction industry is to be revitalized by decentralizing the training of youth and enhancing the capacities and competitiveness of regional contractors. The Chamber of Construction Industry (CCI) has been continuously advocating to deploy regional contractors on infrastructure development and construction related projects in the respective regions. CCI CEO Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya said that over 10,000 youth in the North and East are to be trained in the construction field by the CCI with the assistance of construction companies to strengthen the capacity and improve the ability of the construction sector to facilitate its participation in infrastructure development in war-ravaged areas.

Mr Thalgodapitiya said CCI will launch a Construction Craftsman Training Programme in the Eastern Batticaloa District along with its regional construction trade fair “Excon-Batticaloa” on May 8 and 9 at Lighthouse School Hindu College, Batticaloa. The training programme will be implemented with the assistance of the German Government and in collaboration with GTZ, he said. Seven training centres will be set up in the area to train at least 5040 youth in the East and a similar number will be trained in the North under the second stage of the programme.

With Batticaloa accounting for more than 235 contractors who are outside the major and specialist categories, "Excon - Batticaloa" will expose this constructor community to new technologies and products, and provide them access to information. The event will also seek to build linkages between larger constructors outside the district and those in the Batticaloa District, he added. He said the CCI is confident of bridging the gap between more developed construction industries and the less developed in the conflict affected regions to accelerate reconstruction and development activities in the North and East.

He disclosed that the Chamber is implementing an innovative programme of staging regional construction trade fairs and exhibitions with the aim of revitalizing the construction industry. The inaugural event was staged on February 27 and 28 in Trincomalee “Excon-Batticaloa”, will be the second of the series which is being presented in collaboration with the Batticaloa District Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Construction Association of Sri Lanka Eastern (Batticaloa) Branch.

Mr Thalgodapitiya said the CCI is hopeful that industry stakeholders will support this endeavour to build regional construction capacities by their prominent participation as trade stallholders. With large scale investment in the tourism sector being envisaged, Batticaloa will no doubt be an emerging market for constructors, vendors of construction material, plant and equipment and other inputs, he said.