Why foreign consultants?: insights from the Sri Lankan construction industry

Abstract

With the effect of globalisation, international projects with foreign stakeholders are rapidly increasing in the local construction sector. Equally, the involvement of foreign consultants is increasing. Even though the role of the consultant has a significant impact on the project, the attention paid to the involvement of foreign consultants is low. Hence, this study aims to investigate the requirement for the involvement of foreign consultants in the Sri Lankan construction industry. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the background of international projects, types of consultants, and reasons for the involvement of foreign consultants. The research approach was qualitative, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen industry experts with experience working with foreign consultants. Collected data were analysed using the content analysis method. The research findings revealed that different types of foreign consultants are involved in local construction projects where design-related consultants such as architects and structural engineers are frequently involved. Also, selective and open tendering methods are used to select foreign consultants. Further, there are different reasons for the involvement of foreign consultants in the local context, such as expert knowledge, higher experience, innovative design ideas, clients’ satisfaction, lack of local consultants and loan agreement conditions.