Aviation - the way forward

The following is text of a speech delivered by the Honourable Chamal Rajapaksa, Minister of Ports and Aviation at the Opening Plenary of the 36th Session of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization on September 19, 2007.

ADDRESS: It is indeed a privilege for me to participate at the 36th Session of the Assembly with my delegation, on behalf of the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

I consider this a most beneficial opportunity as I have been able to meet with my counterparts at this apex level gathering of global civil aviation, and to have useful exchange of views as the Minister in charge of civil aviation of my country.

Let me first congratulate the current President of the Council Mr. Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez on his appointment. I take this opportunity to wish you strength and courage to realize all your future objectives.

On this occasion, I wish to place on record our sincere appreciation of Dr. Assad Kotaite for the excellent leadership given to the Council as the President for three decades, which saw many diverse and significant events taking place globally, quite successfully. We are indebted to him for the services rendered for over fifty three years to international civil aviation.

Mr. President, the vision of international civil aviation is to achieve safe, secure and sustainable development through co-operation amongst its member states. This august gathering is one example of such efforts which reflects the commitment of the States. Through togetherness, I am confident that we will achieve all our goals.

The Strategic Objectives of the Organization for the period 2005 to 2010 do not look too difficult on paper.

Everyone agrees on issues of Safety, Security, Environment Protection, Efficiency, Continuity and Rule of Law as essential. In reality, Mr. President, achieving it will be realized only if the whole world join hands to work together as one family.

Individually, respective Member States are not unique in all respects. Realization of Objectives is, comparatively, no easy task for my country. Sri Lanka experienced the destruction of a fleet of modern state-of-the-art aircraft belonging to her national carrier by acts of terrorism in July, 2001 even before the world witnessed with shock, the use of civil aircrafts as weapons of mass destruction on llth September 2001. Has the threat to the world or to Sri Lanka totally disappeared since?

The answer is, NO. Operations of the only international gateway to my country were curtailed during the night recently, as firm measures had to be put in place by us to prevent infiltration of unknown aircraft into our civil airspace.

But Mr. President, as a nation, as a part of the global community, Sri Lanka remains mindful of her obligations. For this, the Government of Sri Lanka is committed and every effort is taken to assure the international aviation community and the travelling public of safe and

secure skies over the territory of Sri Lanka. Further the Government has taken significant steps to develop medium and long term plans in support of facilitating international air travel.

Also having identified the potential contribution of the civil aviation sector towards rapid economic development programs, the Government has completed several infrastructure development projects and has also initiated several others to provide the necessary foundation for other sectors to benefit from the expansion of civil aviation activity.

As we know, the Asia Pacific Region has the second highest forecast of international traffic growth rate for the period 2002 through 2015.

This has brought in new challenges to the Airlines, Airport Operators and allied Service Organisations, especially in terms of capacity demands.

Beside these challenges, they will bring in significant opportunities and rewards. In our efforts to explore the newly available opportunities, the Bandaranaike International Airport went through a comprehensive upgrading project, which was completed last year.

Furthermore, another phase of development has been planned to meet the growing demands of the region.

The present airport alone cannot any longer serve as the only international airport of the country and the need of an alternate runway has been a long felt need. As such, a project is under way to construct the second international airport of the country.

Though Sri Lanka has comparatively a small market, the Government is keen to see more and more airlines get into business to serve the demand for the increasing capacity in the region. The second international air operator started operations in March this year while three more have shown readiness to enter the market.

Sri Lanka has taken these steps in order that all such activities are facilitated in an environment which ensures fulfilment of the country’s obligations towards the international community.

Being a partner to the Regional Co-operation Programme of South Asia known as COSCAP-South Asia, which is the pioneering programme of its kind, Sri Lanka’s focus has always been to cooperate with partners, towards achievement of commongoals and objectives.

Mr. President, before conclusion let me record our appreciation of the progress made by ICAO with its performance based and results-oriented approach towards the global air transport industry.

I sincerely hope the deliberations of the 36th session will lay necessary framework to establish a clear direction for the organization to progress over the next three years and beyond. On behalf of Sri Lanka, again, I would like to offer our sincere gratitude to you for providing us with this opportunity to address this august assembly.