Sri Lanka launches into the world of marinas

As tourist arrivals continue to increase steadily, Sri Lanka is looking to start much-needed marinas sought after by high net-worth tourists for marine leisure action.

“I am glad to announce that my Ministry is willing to support marina development in Sri Lanka through its institutional mechanism.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, with industry participation, has already set up an advisory committee on boat building sector and has obtained allocation from the Treasury to conduct a feasibility study on setting up a dedicated boat park,” revealed Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.

“With the dawn of peace in Sri Lanka due to the leadership of  President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the expansion in economy and specifically, tourism industry expansion, have also resulted in renewed interest in boating, specially the leisure and pleasure boating sector.

This creates new industry opportunities and employment,” Minister Bathiudeen added.

Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the launch event of ‘Boat Show Sri Lanka 2011’ and the official logo of ‘Boat Show’ on 7 December at the Ceylon Continental, Colombo. According to the organisers of this event (which is to be held from 18-20 May 2012 at the BMICH), the show is South Asia’s most focused and largest international boat exhibition. On this occasion, Minister Bathiudeen also unveiled the official logo of the Boat Show 2012.

Boat building in Sri Lanka is an emerging export sector that continues to expand due to the wide variety of products and services it offers to international markets. It should be noted that the first ever ‘Boat Show Sri Lanka’ was held in 2008.

The export value of boats manufactured in Sri Lanka doubled in 2009 to US$ 58 m from $ 22 m in 2008. In 2010 the value of boat exports was US$ 64 m and up to August 2011 it has almost doubled, reaching US$ 124 m.

Speaking on the relevance of the event to boating industry here, Minister Bathiudeen said: “This event comes at an important time as our boating industry is recording a very promising 100 per cent annual growth rate from 2008 onwards. To further develop our industry, one of the prominent development areas would be to create marinas and boat parks which will attract Sri Lankans to own boats thereby creating new growth.

The marinas can provide space for boat manufacturing units and boat launching facilities too thereby significantly enhancing our boat production process.”