CONSTRUCTION company Group Five is concerned that a shortage of skills in the construction industry may negatively affect the massive infrastructure roll-out planned in SA over the next few years.

The concern over the skills shortage comes after the announcement of plans by government and the private sector to spend billions of rand to upgrade infrastructure and production facilities over the next five years.

With the Airports Company of SA having committed R3bn to upgrading airports, Eskom and Transnet spending R163bn on infrastructure, government having committed R2bn to developing stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup and Telkom spending R4bn on its network, there is a worry that there are not enough skills in SA to cope.

The migration and retirement of skilled professionals saw the industry losing up to 60000 people since the 1980s, Group Five CEO Mike Lomas said. While there were new professionals coming into the industry, few people had the experience to participate in a R4bn project.

The last time SA saw such a large commitment to capital expenditure was in the 1970s. Back then the country had the option of importing skilled Europeans to work on large projects like the construction of the Saldanha port and railway link.

As there was a global shortage of construction skills, importing professionals to implement projects would not be easy, Lomas said.