Construction Consortia

Mar 03, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan construction companies which visited the Middle East to bid for a share of the building boom there are forming consortia to pool their resources, an industry official said. The firms will form joint stock companies which will be managed by the Chamber of Construction Industries (CCI), its secretary general Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya said.

Building projects in the countries visited, Qatar and Dubai, are so big that individual firms may not be able to handle them on their own, he said.

The CCI organised two missions to the Gulf to promote exports of construction-related professional services and construction contracting capacities from Sri Lanka.

The first mission in November last year to Qatar and Dubai was by 21 firms including public sector organisations like the State Engineering Corporation and Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau.

This was followed up with another mission to Qatar in February 2008 by 25 private sector companies.

"About 80 percent of members did acquire sufficient business leads," Thalgodapitiya told LBO in an interview.

"The aim of the mission was to promote linkages between the Sri Lankan and Qatar construction industries