Recession helped port expansion

Sri Lanka has the potential to market Sri Lankan ports globally to achieve a better synergy between maritime and logistics operations.

Logistics, which comprises sea and air transport is a sizable growth market worldwide valued at around US$ 320 billion per year with the industry gaining an annual growth rate of three to ten percent.

Capt. Nihal Keppetipola

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Managing Director, Capt. Nihal Keppetipola said the recession is the ideal time for expansion as freight costs and material costs are low and the advantage of lower bids.

“During the global downturn President Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed the management to continue the momentum in port building and infrastructure development,” he said.

Keppetipola was speaking at a workshop on Marketing the Seaports of Sri Lanka for Maritime and Logistics Integration organized by the Moratuwa University with the sponsorship of the SLPA.

“The entire country is now on a mega development drive with the restoration of peace and SLPA is in high spirits to have come a long way by now in its development drive.

As the pace of public-private partnerships and outsourcing gathers momentum, the logistic industry is likely to benefit from continuous growth with new supply chain management features and other value-added services, he said.

The construction of the Sethusamudram canal which was continued against all odds defeating the fundamental tenets of ecological, biological, geological and socio-economic standards in the region with an investment of over Indian Rs. 2000 crores is certainly not a threat to the hub port business of Sri Lanka, Capt. Keppetipola said.

Transport and Logistics Management Head of the Department, Prof. Amal Kumarage said many nations worked towards becoming hubs but only a few have actually made it.

Sri Lanka also knows how difficult it is to become a hub and how compact it is to maintain the hub status when there are many competitors who are well established to the East and West of Sri Lanka. CdeS