With economic stability no space for moratoria in future – Dr. Weerasinghe

There would be no sectoral wise moratoria in the future as given to the tourism industry, said Governor Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe addressing the 12th World Construction Symposium Green Sustainability Awards Night at Taj Samudra Hotel Colombo on Saturday.

The Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) and Building Economics and Management Research Unit (BEMRU), Department of Building Economics, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka jointly organized the event. The Governor also said that the country went through its worst economic crisis two years ago and there was no conducive environment to do business. Hence many sectors needed a financial injection to survive and this was provided by the government.

In addition, due to prudent economic management the country recovered and a very healthy environment to do business has been created.

“Interest rates have come down. Entrepreneurs have restart investing and also we have created a very healthy exchange rate and most importantly a stable banking system has been created. All these factors have led to economic stability and hence we do not see the need for any sector needing moratoria in the future.”

The theme of the Symposium was “Empowering Construction Industry: Towards Sustainable Development Goals” and the governor said this is also very timely. “More emphasis has to be paid towards sustainability.”

President CIOB, Dr. Rohan Karunaratne said that the industry was severely affected due to the economic crisis but now they see a silver lining.

The donor funded projects are re-starting and out of the Rs. 700 billion due to the industry 90% paid back and the remaining disputed payments too are being expedited. He said that they will also gain more financial assistance from donor agencies in the future.

Furthermore, the decision makers of the industry have got-together and are taking steps in bringing down constriction cost, inefficiency in management and cut down wastages. “If we attend to these we can save over 25% and in that case Sri Lankan construction costs can remain competitive on par with our neighboring countries. However, in other countries our construction quality and lifetime is very high and we have almost no failures.”

“We have also received more than 100 research papers from top ranked universities from all over the world.”

CIOB is of the view that these research papers should be entertained and used for the practical use to the benefit of the industry by the industry research units and authorities of the public and private sectors.

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