Sri Lanka: Plethora of building technology opportunities

Sri Lanka, an island nation, witnessed a burst of optimism due to increase in trade and commerce in 2012. The construction sector has been the biggest beneficiary of this. This sector saw unparalleled growth of more than 20% percent over a period of 12 months, which is the highest witnessed since the country’s independence. The tourism industry, which contributed to 3.8% of the country’s GDP in 2012 welcomed over a million international visitors and continued to drive positive market sentiments.

The real estate sector’s growth has had a ripple effect on the building construction market as it contributed to more than 65% of the total construction and infrastructure industry. Associated products and sectors ranging from building materials such flooring and ceiling to bigger equipment like lighting, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning), elevators and escalators have benefitted from this growth.

Industry challenges

The Sri Lankan market for building technologies is expected to provide a positive future for companies operating in these businesses. Although opportunities are in abundance, there are challenges that make it difficult to achieve the optimum market potential. Despite an upward trend in demand and investment, the building technologies market faces a few inherent challenges such as:

Low awareness among consumers for advanced and energy efficient building technologies; lack of sufficient capital; disparity in economic development making it difficult to adopt common strategies or business models; lack of awareness about the new technologies leading to lack of experience and in-depth market knowledge at the end-users end; and small customer base.

These challenges can be mitigated if extensive market knowledge is acquired, along with right marketing and product mix strategy.

Brighter opportunities ahead – lighting market

Lighting is seen as one of the biggest consumer of electricity in households, especially during peak loads in the evenings. Expansion in rural electrification and provision of electricity to the underdeveloped parts of the country is expected to increase opportunities for lighting but worsen energy shortage. Hence, there is an urgent need to improve the existing, ineffective lighting systems to advanced systems that consume less energy. Sri Lanka, however, witnesses a relatively low level penetration of energy efficient lighting products like LEDs and CFLs in comparison to other South Asian countries like India. Several organisations are launching efforts to educate the public about better means of lighting and popularise energy efficient products.

Changing customer attitudes and support from government-based organisations will open up the Sri Lankan market for energy efficient lighting techniques. Several independent studies are underway to understand the lighting modes and demand that are prevalent in order to devise effective modalities to ensure usage of energy efficient technologies. Several international companies are entering Sri Lanka to bridge the gap prevailing in the supply of energy efficient lighting.

Sri Lanka is planning to attract over 2.5 million tourists in 2016, which converts to more than double the usage of power in hotels. Energy efficient lighting could solve the problem of high power bills and increase operating profits for hotels. Therefore, hotels are a promising segment for penetration of new technologies and double digit growth for the lighting market is expected over tКроссовки Lifestyle