‘Limitless potential for Sri Lanka to be a maritime hub’: Minister de Silva

• Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister highlights ongoing and proposed initiatives worth over $ 1 b in investments

Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva recently stressed that Sri Lanka has limitless potential to be a maritime hub and outlined a host of ongoing and planned initiatives worth over $ 1 billion.

Following are excerpts of the Minister’s speech at the Annual General Meeting of the Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) at which McLarens Holdings Group Managing Director Shehara de Silva was re-elected for a second term.

Given that 90% of the world trade is transported through oceans, the shipping field is a key factor in the growth of many country economies including Sri Lanka. With international trade increasing globally, the Minister stressed that CASA’s role is crucial in the years to come.

SLPA as the regulator and operator, and CASA has a very close relationship with shared interests. We should challenge ourselves to adopt the new technologies that are emerging globally. It will be a more collaborative journey together.

SLPA has taken measures to develop the infrastructure required for capacity enhancements. Two deep-water terminals to be added within two to three years. Sri Lanka sealed the biggest-ever investment in to the port sector worth $ 650 million with joint project promoters – India’s giant Adani, local blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) and the State-owned SLPA signing the Build, Own and Transfer (BOT) deal for the Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT).

Phase II of the East Container Terminal (ECT) of the Port of Colombo (POC) has commenced and work is in progress. It will have a 1,320 m long quay to accommodate 3 Ultra Large Container Carriers (ULCC) which have a length of 400 m or more at -18 to -20 m depth berths with a backyard area. The approximate terminal area is 72 ha. This will be the Second Deep Water terminal and it will add another 3 million TEUs to the Port of Colombo. Once ECT and WCT are fully operationalised in 2024-2025 it will increase the capacity of Port of Colombo by another 7 million TEUs. Shipping lines could enter into terminal services agreements to make use of these developments and provide the throughput boost the port requires.

He said the SLPA began construction of Phase Five of the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) to improve the capacity of the Colombo Port. The Phase Five of the JCT includes an investment of $ 32 million. The construction company for the project is China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC). Upon the completion of construction, a new yard area of 40,000 square metres will also be added to the JCT.

Noting that Port of Colombo (POC) was ranked as the 15th connected port, the Minister invited the world shipping lines to consider more transhipment at POC. The cargo that is brought to POC can be easily connected to the Indian Ports, Africa, Bangladesh, Maldives and Far East. Such service may also provide a competitive price for them. CASA could be the voice of being the brand ambassador in promoting the Port of Colombo as a Transhipment Hub and thereby contribute to the uplift of the growth.

In terms of tourism and cruise shipping, he said the SLPA launched the project to develop and promote heritage city Galle’s Port into a fully-fledged tourist port and leisure hub of South Asia with an investment of $ 175-200 million. The four-year project headed by the SLPA will be developed as a Public Private Partnership (PPP). The project includes two offshore breakwaters to maintain the sufficient calmness in the Galle bay and harbour. To facilitate large cruise ships, it has been proposed to construct a state-of-the-art cruise terminal as well. The aim is to convert Galle into a regional commercial port with additional emphasis on tourism. With new private sector investments, leisure-based commercial activities will also be developed. Additionally, the Port of Trincomalee has been developed focusing on conventional cargo operations.

Apart from port infrastructure the need to develop Colombo’s ancillary services to move forward in the concept of a hub was stressed by Minister de Silva. “A successful hub port requires the full range of ancillary port and marine services at competitive prices in order to be attractive to mainline and feeder operators, casual callers and attracting vessels specifically for services even without cargo operations,” he said.

Value added services and developing warehouses are being accelerated as these are essential in being a maritime hub. Warehouses within the port premises will be further modernised and UCT will be turned into a fully-fledged container freight station while Bloemendhal will accommodate a warehouse out of the port premises.

The Minister said the SLPA has concentrated on creating a competitive edge through deploying innovative e-initiative and strategic IT systems to improve productivity and provide uninterrupted services to port users. A port community system will be implemented so that all stakeholders could be operating on a common platform. Through all these initiatives, the goal is to create guidelines and standards for efficient, secure, reliable and seamless electronic information exchange among maritime stakeholders using available communication systems. I am confident that CASA will reap the benefits of these as well.

Pointing out that SLPA does not have sufficient modern warehouse facilities, the Government is planning to build a state of art warehouse facility at Bloemendhal Road with public private partnership in a five and half acre of land owned by SLPA. The envisaged investment in this project is around $ 100 million. “We have also planned a logistic Centre within the premises of SLPA in order to enhance the quality of operations in the SLPA in par with most developed ports in South East Asia,” he added.

The Minister also commended CASA for its support towards green port concepts by donating bikes to promote biking and thereby be more environmentally friendly methods of transport. The training wing of SLPA the Mahapola Port and Maritime Academy is currently conducting many training programs for internal employees while it will soon open its doors for external candidates with programs related to ports and shipping. This would be an excellent opportunity for CASA members to develop their Human Resources.

De Silva also spoke of maritime employment opportunities. He said the Philippines 10% of its foreign employment is in the maritime field and draws a large amount of foreign currency to the Philippines. The number of seafarers and people engaged in employment in the maritime sector by Sri Lankans is less than 0.1%. “Our Government and my Ministry has launched an ambitious program to train more seafarers and engineers, craftsmen to be employed in the ships. I seek your assistance and also the ship owner’s assistance to absorb more cadets from Sri Lanka which would help us to train more youth in the maritime field and provide them with secure employment,” the Minister said.

“Sri Lanka moving its way into the top ranks of global sea ports by volume and growth, it is a joint effort of public bodies like SLPA and private organisations collaborating in order to bring international best practices to the industry. With the recent changes in policy, and through the collaboration of experts from both public and private sector bodies like CASA working on the existing issues together, there is a limitless potential for Sri Lanka to be a maritime hub in the region,” the Minister emphasised.