The boom referred to in the Budget of 9% growth in the Construction Industry is due to the Mega Projects undertaken by the Government over the past few years in the Power, Ports, Tank Rehabilitation and Construction, Road Sector, Tsunami Re-construction of Housing and Infrastructure, Maga and Gama Neguma etc. Most of these projects are Foreign Funded and undertaken by Foreign Consultants and Contractors, or the Projects are given to Government Organizations for implementation. Consequently, the local Private Sector Consultants and the majority of the Small and Medium Scale Contractors have not benefitted by this impressive growth and are facing severe hardships, said President of the Chamber of Construction Industry Ar/Plnr Surath Wickramasinghe.

In the Budget 2009, out of the Rs. 370 Billion allocated for Capital Expenditure at least 50% will be for the 50,000 Housing programme for the Defence Personnel, new Ports and Airport Development, Urban Development and other construction related work which is most welcome and will benefit the Construction Industry and we hope the work will be distributed in a fair and just manner to both the Public and Private Sectors.

It is regretted that despite representations by the Chamber of Construction Industry, Sri Lanka the Budget has not made a policy decision to facilitate Public / Private / Partnerships to promote viable Mega Projects in Urban Regeneration, Infrastructure Development etc. We proposed a Special Fund to provide Seed Capital to "Kick-Start" a few projects of National importance to maintain a sustainable flow of work for the Construction Industry; specially, at a time when there is a drop in the demand for Commercial and Real Estate Development.