Government to construct highway linking Negombo and Trincomalee - Amunugama

by Anjana Samarasinghe

The Government is to construct a highway linking Negombo and Trincomalee soon said Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Sarath Amunugama at the inauguration of the Buyers-Sellers meet and SME fair of the construction industry at BMICH last week.

Minister Amunugama said that the President was instrumental in obtaining the necessary funds for the highway.

'Any country should heavily invest on physical and social infrastructure. But Sri Lanka has neglected physical infrastructure development. The Government hopes to invest large amount of funds that are obtained from bilataral grants, donations and domestic savings for the development of infrastructure, Amunugama said.

The Central Bank says that in the second quarter Sri Lanka was able to gain 6% of economic growth. Tsunami construction and expansion of the industry have spare with the economic growth of the country. Developing condominiums show the improvement of the industry.

The construction industry has to play an important role in the development process, he said. Minister of Housing, Construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development Ferial Ashraff said that a construction policy has been approved and the Act is before Cabinet.

Minister of Advanced Technology and Enterprise Development Rohitha Bogollagama said that linkage of the construction sector and the supplying line is vital to the development of the sector. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse has included most of the important suggestions that were made by the construction industry in his manifesto, that will be unveiled to the public.

CEO/Secretary General Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya said the domestic construction industry is consistant with SMEs. Competitiveness and capacity building could not be enhanced without improving SMEs.

"The Buyer Seller meeting will help constructors and suppliers to develop their linkages and also participants will be able to have an overview of standards and quality of construction materials," he said.