EXCON 2015 to enable rapid development of infrastructure in Sri Lanka and SAARC region

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Indian High Commission organised a preview of EXCON 2015 – South Asia’s largest event for the construction equipment industry – in Colombo yesterday.

EXCON 2015, scheduled to be held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), Bangalore from 25-29 November is spread across 2,000,000 square feet. More than 900 exhibitors, including 250 foreign companies would be participating as exhibitors at the event. Thefive-day exhibition will witness over 200 new product launches and attract over 35000 business visitors from across the globe.

Making the opening remarks at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Mangala P.B. Yapa stated: “We in Sri Lanka consider the construction industry as a priority sector. With the current business environment in Sri Lanka which is rapidly growing, being one of the most peaceful countries in the region for over six years and seeing many improvements to the country’s infrastructure in the recent past, the future demands that are foreseen are most encouraging.”

He further stated that with Sri Lanka accelerating its development of infrastructure, EXCON Roadshow would be an opportunity for the private sector who are in the construction sector to benefit by, through knowledge transfer, joint ventures, etc., in going forward in the future. 

“EXCON Construction Exhibition and Conference, therefore, is an ideal platform to forge partnerships between our local businesses and the participating members of the Confederation of Indian Industry.” 

In his presentation on EXCON 2015, Glenville da Silva, Member, EXCON 2015 Steering Committee & Vice President, Volvo Construction Equipment, Asia, said: “This is the eighth edition of the EXCON, the inaugural edition of which was held in 2000.  The important feature of EXCON 2015 is that all the players in the Construction Equipment space will be available at the event combined with a record number of overseas companies. There will be country pavilions from Germany, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, China, Finland, UK, etc.”

Silva said that almost all large global MNCs in the construction equipment space have a robust manufacturing presence in india and have increasingly catering to not only India but to ASEAN and other parts of the world. Some even have made India as the base for their supplies to the world on specific machines.

With a vibrant framework of the Free Trade Agreement between India and Sri Lanka, the Indian construction equipment industry has tremendous potential for cooperation with Sri Lanka for making available the world’s best construction equipment technology/quality at the most competitive and affordable pricing. There will be a substantial cost advantage not only in sourcing equipment from India but also component sourcing and aftermarket service which form a large part of the operating cost, he added. The renewed focus in deepening the economic engagement between India and Sri Lanka by the respective Governments would further add fillip for cooperation in the infrastructure sector.

With a projected Indian investment in the infrastructure sector in the 12th plan period (2012-17), which is pegged at $ 100 billion, the global players in the infrastructure sector, especially construction equipment have immense opportunity to take part in India’s infrastructure growth story. ICEMA, an affiliate body of the CII, will host a 2-day conference on ‘Rebooting Infrastructure’ with the theme ‘Build India for a Better Tomorrow’ coinciding with EXCON 2015 on 26-27 November. The conference would deliberate on key challenges in accelerating growth of infrastructure with focus on sustainable development and Make in India with respect to components and aggregates manufacturing. The last edition of EXCON had a large participation of visitors from Sri Lanka and the same is expected to get better at EXCON 2015.