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For the second consecutive year during the “Sri Lanka Maritime Week” in September, the Colombo International Maritime Conference (CIMC) will be held from 21 to 23 September 2016 in Colombo. The event is conducted in association with the Ministry of Ports and Shipping led by the Minster of Ports and Shipping with the Speaker of the Parliament being the patron of the event for the 
first time. Sri Lanka Maritime week is a cabinet declared week to commemorate World Maritime Day every year which falls in the last week of September as per the International Maritime Organisation’s calendar.
The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) theme 2016 was chosen to focus on the critical link between shipping and global society and to raise awareness of the relevance of the role of IMO as the global regulatory body for international shipping. The importance of shipping to support and sustain today’s global society gives IMO’s work a significance that reaches far beyond the industry itself. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), around 80 % of global trade by volume and over 70 % of global trade by value are carried by sea and are handled by ports worldwide. These shares are even higher in the case of most developing countries. Without shipping the import and export of goods on the scale necessary to sustain the modern world would not be possible.
Seaborne trade continues to expand, bringing benefits for consumers across the world through competitive freight cost
The Sri Lanka maritime week will be inaugurated by President Maithripala Sirisena to mark the world maritime day and the Colombo International Maritime Conference will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister who will be the keynote speaker at the conference. Many senior ministers too will be taking stage with over 35 international speakers for the sessions conducted during the 3 day event.
The first CIMC in 2015 was an immense success, with a large number of overseas visitors and speakers present in Colombo. Sri Lanka’s emerging importance in international logistics and shipping has made it a thrust industry for economic expansion.
Sri Lanka is the most centrally located island in the Indian Ocean 12 nautical miles from the busiest the east-west main shipping route for international shipping. It also has the north south corridor connecting South Asia to Africa and connects many other continents and markets within shortest voyage times.With a growing regional population of nearly 2 billion in South Asia and beyond, Sri Lanka is an Ideal location for feeder shipping and logistics which can connect to the biggest and the deepest ports in the South Asia with state of the art technology where Colombo is ranked among the first 30 container ports in the world.
With the government’s vision to build the biggest mega polis in South Asia, the island which is just one to two hours flight time to India and four hours flight time to the Middle East and East Asia would be a perfect location to be a gateway to India and rest of South Asia. The organisers of the conference believe that developing, shipping, logistics and the general maritime industry will assist the country to enter into a new phase of development over the next decade and make Sri Lanka a super service centre in South Asia for international investors.
The CIMC was designed with this objective in mind and it was a success last year because of the cross section of the industry teaming up to build country awareness internationally. The government too recognised our efforts. We have a good team, young, seniors and others from the public sector working together to promote and build awareness of Sri Lanka and its strengths as a maritime destination. As we understand at the moment the maritime sector contributes less than 3% to the GDP, we want to double it in a reasonable time, which will create wealth and employment. “CIMC is part of this effort.Sri Lanka can be the Hong Kong for India, and that is possible if we put our efforts and create the right environment”, said organising committee chairman Rohan Masakorala.
The above theme is to offer and showcase the growing opportunities in Sri Lanka maritime industry in South Asia to international businesses as it opens up and invite for more business to South Asia and to invite investors to locate in Sri Lanka as the preferred maritime destination hub for better profits and sustainability.
CIMC will open up topics ranging from South Asia maritime forum, Africa, Asia gateway, emerging Myanmar, and global shipping industry updates, transshipment,Colombo logistics forum, port development strategy, energy, cruise tourism, yacht marinas, offshore services, bunkering, technology updates, Sri Lanka as an investment destination are some sessions that will be available at the conference.
CIMC has support from all sectors including foreign embassies this time around as well as an international partner who has joined to organise an exhibition which will run parallel with the CIMC2016. Transport Events Management will be organising the exhibition. More information can be found on www.cimc.lk
