Safeguarding local construction industrialists is a duty of the government and the time has come to implement the 'Sri Lanka First' concept in the field of construction, Housing, Construction, and Cultural Affairs Minister Sajith Premadasa said.
He was speaking at the National Construction Award Ceremony held recently at the BMICH.
Minister Premadasa said that most of the people those who involved in the construction field are trying to bring foreign investors since they believe that the business community and the public cannot get benefits through a business procedure depend on local opportunities.
Within a common legal framework, foreign investors have been able to incur large profits. But now the time has come to give priority for local construction industrialists and new conditions should be implemented to make it compulsory for all foreign investors to join with a local investor when they are going to invest in large-scale projects. Those conditions should also be connected to the legal framework.
Local construction industrialists have to face various difficulties without receiving their payments on time. Though we submitted several proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers seeking their approval for the implementation of ‘Contract Payment Grants’, but still there is any response for that.
“I have submitted another Cabinet paper seeking approval to implement a special legal procedure to make payments of the contractors under a transparent legal procedure.” the minister said.
Minister Premadasa further stressed the importance of setting up a Construction Industries Development Fund in order to give due social respect and recognition to the human resources of this field.
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