6th World Construction Symposium

The World Construction Symposium 2017 was held on 30 June and 1 July at Hotel Galadari. The World Construction Symposium is an annual international industry event taking place in Sri Lanka focusing on sustainable construction. The symposium provides a special forum for researchers and practitioners in the area of sustainable construction worldwide to share their knowledge, experience and research findings. The symposium was jointly organised by the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) and Building Economics Management and Research Unit (BEMRU) of the Department of Building Economics, University of Moratuwa. 

The extensive technical program at the symposium included over 50 research papers being presented by academics and industry professionals from countries such as Sri Lanka, Turkey, Oman, India, Australia, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The papers presented were based on 26 sub themes. Over 100 foreign delegates and over 200 local delegates attended the symposium. The Symposium concluded with a Panel discussion on Public Private Partnerships where representatives from private sector, Govt. officers and officers from donor agencies took part and aired their views.

Minister of Skill Development and Vocational Training Chandima Weerakody graced the inaugural session of the symposium as the Chief Guest. Professor Akintola Akintoye, a distinguished academic from the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom and Professor Srinath Perera, an eminent academic from the Western Sydney University, Australia delivered the keynote addresses at the inaugural session of the symposium. The theme of the symposium was “What’s New and What’s Next in the Built-Environment Sustainability Agenda?”

Other notable participants of the symposium were Prof. Ananda Jayawardena, Vice Chancellor of University of Moratuwa, Prof. Lalith De Silva, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Professor Mohan Kumaraswamy, Honorary Professor of the University of Hong Kong and Editor in Chief of Built Environment Project and Asset Management Journal, Academics and Research Scholars from Liverpool John Moores University, University of Hong Kong, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Northumbria University, Robert Gordon University and Western Sydney University.

In his address at the inaugural session, the Chief Guest emphasized the problem faced by the construction industry due to lack of man power and pledged his ministry’s support to initiate training programs to train unemployed youth on vocational skills related to construction industry and upgrade the skills of the workforce already employed in the construction industry. 

Expressing their views on the concluded 6th World Construction Symposium, Ceylon Institute of Builders President Dr. Rohan Karunaratne and the Vice Presidents Ruwan De Silva and Jaikish Tudawe said: “We are extremely pleased to have hosted the World Construction symposium for the sixth consecutive year in Sri Lanka. Today this symposium has become a looked forward to event among the academics and researches in the construction industry in Sri Lanka. CIOB’s goal is to make it mandatory for Sri Lankan companies to adopt Green building methodologies as an integral part of their development activities. In this regard the symposium will serve to introduce new thinking in the construction industry. 

They further said that they are thankful to the Conference Chairperson Prof. Chitra Weddikkara, Symposium Organising Co-Chairs Sagara Gunawardena and Kalana Alwis, Scientific Committee Co-Chairs, lectures and students of the Department of Building Economics of the University of Moratuwa and staff of CIOB for their untiring effort in making this important international symposium a grant success.”

Dr. Yasangika Sandanayake, Head of Department of Building Economics, Moratuwa University mentioned that, “We are happy to be associated with CIOB in organizing this prestigious annual event, ‘World Construction Symposium 2017’, as the joint organiser. The World Construction Symposium has gone a long way in addressing the pressing issues that the industry faces with regard to sustainable construction. We were hugely impressed by the diversity and high standard of submissions that we received for this year’s symposium. We are grateful for the all associate partners, keynote speakers, members of panel discussion, scientific committee members, session chairs, all presenters and participants who contributed to make this event a success.”

Coinciding with the World Construction Symposium, CIOB Green Mark Building Awards 2017 was held on the evening of 1 July, at the Ramada Hotel, Colombo. Awards and certifications were awarded to organisations, products and buildings that have achieved CIOB Green Mark Certification after a rigorous evaluation process and professionals who have successfully completed the CIOB Advanced certificate course for Green Managers. Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Science, Technology and Research was the Chief Guest at the event. 

In his remarks the Minister mentioned that there is a need to promote research and development in the construction industry in Sri Lanka and there is greater requirement for both the industry and the academic to work together. He congratulated both the Ceylon Institute of Builders and the University of Moratuwa for joining together to host the World Construction Symposium. He further mentioned that Sri Lanka has ratified to implement the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030 and the President wants to encourage greater participation from the industry for achieving this. He elucidated the advances made in the area of Nano technology and how it can be used in Construction. He further went on to state that his ministry will give its fullest support to both the institutions to undertake research especially in implementing Nano technology based sustainable construction methods in Sri Lanka.