Sri Lanka’s transport and logistics industry gets big boost

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

Giving a big boost to the country’s logistics and transport sector, Sri Lanka has won the bid to host the 2013 international convention of the industry’s global professional body.

The announcement of Sri Lanka’s victory beating other contenders Mauritius and North America was announced last night in Colombo by the visiting Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) International President Professor Alan Waller.

Addressing the inauguration of the CILT Sri Lanka International Conference 2011 at which the institution launched its corporate partnerships with 15 organisations in the country, Waller said: “The logistics and transport industry needs to be recognised as a profession and not merely a sector. However on a positive note, supply chain management is gaining its place in the boardroom.”

“More than half of the world’s leading business having supply chain represented on the board of the business although a lot of companies say that the supply chain leader doesn’t deserve a place on the board but the situation has improved greatly from that of five years ago,” Waller added.

He added that an element of best practices in this industry are corporate partnerships and he congratulated CILT Sri Lanka and the 15 partners on their achievement, stating that it’s not easy to capture the proposition or even the partners.

The 15 organisations that have entered the corporate partnership with CILT Sri Lanka are Abans Pvt. Ltd., Aitken Spence Maritime, Ceyline Holdings, Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, Finlays Cold Storage Pvt. Ltd., Freight Links International, Hayleys Advantis Ltd., Hemas Transportation, John Keells Logistics, Lanka Logistics Pvt. Ltd., McLarens Holdings Ltd., National Transport Commission, Sathsindu Group, Sri Lanka Ports Authority and the University of Moratuwa.

“This is a profession that needs to be put up on its own pedestal and not as some added on function to some other department within organisations. It is therefore time to change and we believe that this is one of the ways in which CILT can enforce change in organisations in times to come. In early times, infrastructure was often a barrier, thereafter it was technology but in today’s world we find the barrier increasingly to be people and people’s skills and we find these barriers in every organisation,” stated CILT Chairman Amal Kumarage in his welcome address.

The corporate partnership initiative initially hoped to gain at least 15 organisations by April 2012, but with the exceedingly positive response CILT has received, they hope to increase their numbers to 20 by the end of this year.

The youth in Sri Lanka have shown interest in getting involved in transport and logistics, Kumarage went on to say. “As a profession, it has come to stay and the new generation is ready to take over and it is up to the industry to reciprocate that interest and enthusiasm by providing jobs for those who are keen on having a career in this sector,” he further encouraged.

Through the corporate partnership initiative, CILT aims to build up professionalism in the industry as well as further Sri Lanka’s vision to become a logistics hub by encouraging further knowledge sharing partnerships such as this which will play a pivotal role in achieving this vision.

The annual international conference of CILT starting this morning at the Ceylon Continental Hotel Colombo will be under the theme ‘Success of Delivery – Logistics in Global Commerce’.

The event is expected to draw attention to the growing importance of logistics and transport at a time when Asia is experiencing an economic resurgence.

Professor Waller will deliver the keynote address on professionalism in supply chains where he will explain with case studies and success stories about making an impact with propagation of best practices and industry ethics in assisting and guiding the global logistics and transportation membership in their endeavours.

Dr. Lee Styger, an accomplished academic and an expert in supply chain management from the University of Wollongong Australia, is also expected to enlighten the audience on ‘Economic Growth through Sustainable Supply Capability’.

Eminent industrialists such as Deshamanya Mahesh Amalean, Chairman of MAS Holdings, Ranjit Page, Deputy Chairman of Cargills (Ceylon), Dr. Arul Sivagananathan, Managing Director Of Hayleys’ BPO and Shared Services Unit and Rizwan Soomar, Managing Director of Maersk Line (India and Sri Lanka), will also share their success stories at the event.

The views expressed at the conference would be of particular relevance and importance to Sri Lanka in becoming an aviation and a naval hub in the Indian Ocean region as well as the world and drive the world economy in the future.

The conference would be of particular relevance to Sri Lanka as the national economy is steadily improving while aiming to become a logistics hub as stated in the Government’s ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ policy for the future.