Colombo Port passes landmark - Hakeem

SUCCESS: Former Minister of Ports and Shipping and now Minister of Posts and Telecommunication, Rauf Hakeem said that it was a great achievement for the Colombo Port to have passed the 3 million TU mark.

Making the keynote address at the Institute of Shipbrokers on Wednesday he said that however this amount should be doubled.

The ranking of the Port of Colombo which was once within the Top 25 ports in the world, continues to

 plummet.

Another important indicator is the fall of the Colombo's market share of the transshipment cargo from the Indian sub-continent. It has to be remembered that Colombo began the transshipment business for Indian sub-continent first way back in the early 80's but has permitted the far eastern and middle eastern ports to overtake as in some areas.

A key factor contributing to the performance of Port of Colombo is the inordinate delay in starting the Colombo South Port project.

"During my tenure as Minister of Ports and Shipping I laid the foundation for the project and instructed my officials to expedite the process by placing the Colombo South Port project on top of the priority list he said.

"The government has now commenced this project. The time has come for Sri Lanka to adopt a clearer vision in order to regain the lost glory of Port of Colombo and re-enter the Indian Sub-continent transshipment market aggressively.

"As an Island nation revolving around exports and imports I have been saddened to witness the gradual demise of our national merchant fleet Hakeem said.

"I am confident the Minister in charge of shipping would revive Ceylon Shipping Corporation, as it could play an important role as a regional carrier," said, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Karu Jayasuriya.

"I would try to establish a new vision for the Port of Colombo. As the saying goes "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us".

"Two decades ago we had a vision to make the Port of Colombo hub of the South Asia.

"I am pleased that the Government has formally launched the development of Colombo South Harbour, which I believe would bring in additional capacity by the year 2011, I have heard stakeholders saying that the present Port of Colombo would run out of capacity by the end of next year.

"Therefore we need to ensure that we come up with short term measures to increase capacity within the present Port of Colombo," he added.

"In this backdrop, my vision for the Port of Colombo is to see it becoming the "Regional Logistics and Demand Chain Management Centre of South Asia and Middle East," he added.