Regional hub-centre for trade and logistics
Peter Barbut
Sri Lanka, a Future HUB for Trade and
Logistics for the Indian Sub Continent (ISC) Region. Today at the higher
corridors of the government, there seems to be a lot of ambitious
thinking and forecasting in creating Sri Lanka into a regional
hub-centre for trade and logistics, which will follow as one of the next
in-line revenue generators after tourism in the coming years
Sri Lanka is uniquely situated in the backdrop of the
India-sub-continent and within the closest proximity to the
international ocean routes that link from Asia to Europe and is
currently a partial gateway to the Southern and Eastern part of the
Indian peninsula, catering to the transhipment services for Indian
import and export trade for the Southern states of Tamil Nadu,
Karanataka, Hyderabad and Kerala and Kolkata.
Having said this, one also has to keep a close watch on the current
developments taking place in the ports sector of the Southern Indian
region where new and additional port infrastructure is rapidly
enhancing. Further to these developments, there was also a recent
announcement from the Indian Government, on their plans to develop the
Island of Port Blair as a major port, which can possibly be converted
for trans-shipment relays from Far-east and Europe to cater the Southern
ports in time to come.
Construction site at Hambantota port. File photo |
Port infrastructure
With these far fledged plans of the Indian shipping authorities, we
in Sri Lanka will have to give some serious thinking on how we are also
going to develop our port infrastructure and logistics blue-prints to
ensure that we are not eventually caught up in the race and investments
do not go into under utilization of resources and assets, as today the
reasons for major shipping lines calling at the port of Colombo is
primarily to trans-ship the volumes of containers to the Southern ports
of India. (In fiscal year 2009-10, which ended in March 31, major ports
in India handled was 6.87 million TEUs from 6.59 million TEUs, are
growth of 4.3 percent, covering 12-major ports which includes Kolkata,
Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Tuticorin, Cochin, New Mangalore,
Mormugao, JNPT, Mumbai, Kandla and Ennore).
International markets
Unless, Sri-Lanka also can increase substantially our export products
to the international markets in USA, Europe and Asia, we may not be in
advantages situation to attract the main liner vessels to frequently
call at our ports. We need to avoid this unforeseen situation, which one
may say it is more a speculation than a reality, or a debate that we can
deliberate when it happens, but it is always a wise thing to be more
cautious than be taken by surprise.
The Government has to now give utmost priority to re-build and bridge
our deficit between import spending and export earnings (Foreign
Exchange). This can be done in several ways, not only exporting our
manufactured goods but also exporting our services in the form of value
addition through Sri Lanka. It could also be done by way of developing
our logistics capabilities by creating the most modern warehousing
infrastructure facilities to temporary store and deliver ‘JUST-IN-TIME’
supply chain management systems to the large manufacturing companies in
Southern India, mostly in the Tamil Nadu state, with the opening up of
SPEZ’s where today multinational brands have already set-up their plants
which cater to the Indian domestic market as well to export markets, a
major area of concentration can be found in the automotive sector, where
OEM’s also have shifted their productions from other locations due to
cost effective advantages in India.
If Sri Lanka is to position herself as a potential relay hub for
goods and services to the ISC region, we must also develop our
professional manpower in the logistics performance area. Without having
the right skill and knowledge, in the operations aspects of the global
logistics concepts, we cannot provide the international service levels
to these ventures. Apart from training and developing human resources,
we also must find the right synergy that brings about the economic and
service advantage to create the conducive cost benefits.
Similarly what Singapore offers today as a regional
distribution-centre in the Intra-Asian region for many large
multinational companies operating out of Singapore, to reduce shipping
time and the execution of supply with the least time frame from order
placement to final delivery to the end users.
ISC regional countries
Even today ISC regional countries - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh,
Maldives and Sri Lanka also buys in, the raw-materials, semi-finished
goods and fully manufactured merchandise from this regional distribution
centres. Some versatile points of consideration that we should be
thinking in order to accomplish the hub reality is said below:-
* Port charges for third country merchandise should have a very low
handling tariffs.
* Port Turn-around of merchandise discharge from containers into
trans-shipment warehouses should be done within a maximum time frame of
12-24 hrs from the time of arrival of the import vessels.
* Trans-shipment rent to be minimal with 14-days free time allowed
* Bonded trans-shipment warehousing facilities to be provided within
a close proximity to the port.
* The private sector participation to be granted in the management of
the third country cargo warehousing, where inventory stocks can be
managed within a bonded system.
* Re-export of third country cargo has to have a one ‘stop’ Customs
clearance procedure where shipments can be loaded onto export bound
vessels to ISC ports within a maximum of six-hrs time frame, as the
whole idea behind is to fulfill ‘Just-In-Time’ deliveries to the final
consignees.
* There should be no element of any Customs duties or surcharges
charged on third country cargo.
* The Government should be only targeting a revenue of 1-2 percent on
the value (FOB) of the third country merchandise to be competitive and
collect this revenue only when the re-shipment/trans-shipment is taken
place, all incoming shipments will have to be warehoused once the
containers are arrived at the port of Colombo.
* The Sri Lanka Customs will have to formulate just one type of
documentation in line with CUSDEC for 3rd-Country shipments.
* The Logistics service operators will provide a Bankers Guarantee to
only cover the 1-2 percent Government revenue and the risk exposure to
the values of the third country merchandise will be covered through
insurance by the suppliers who will maintain the inventory at Sri Lanka.
* A fully integrated IT-system should be linked with all the
stakeholders for the venture to minimize undue delays in the time for
third country cargo, whilst transitting through Sri Lanka. By providing
a smooth flow of goods through the hub operations, which is a captive
advantage if we can provide and manage to achieve the efficiency levels
of ‘JIT’ delivery concept, enhancing the reliability in the ‘Supply
Chain Management’ philosophy, which is today the most important criteria
in the process from manufacturing to the final consumer.
Foreign exchange
By providing the advantages of a reliable delivery efficiency coupled
with cost effectiveness, we can significantly cut-down the lead-times of
shipments/containers through the hub, will be one of the major factor to
increase the volumes, whereby the Government will be able to generate
more foreign exchange in totality.
Considering all other value added services including cargo insurance
that would generate from such a venture. At the same time, Sri-Lanka can
also attract some of the players of the OEM Industry in the automotive
sector as the OEM companies can also take the advantage of exports out
of Sri Lanka to other world auto markets.
Hence it will also be able to bring-in automotive component
manufacturing industry to the Sri Lanka manufacturing fold instead of
only looking at ready-made garments, which today is showing symptoms of
becoming gradually an unsustainable industry from the statistics that
are known with several garment factories closing down instead of opening
new units.
The country must now look forward to getting itself into other
potential light industries more technology driven and do not become too
much dependant on the old cash-cow.
Geographical position
There are several value additions that can be provided by the
logistics providers, from pick and pack, kitting, from bulk into
consumer packaging, MRP price labeling with bar-code maintain
inventories for re-export to the ISC region and beyond. Even looking at
some of the central Asian countries, many other value added services
required by final consignees can be provided which would also generate
employment in the logistics services industry. This will bring in
additional opportunities to the banking sector, by way of developing the
required financial environment to multi-national suppliers for
cross-trading, from inventories maintained at Colombo.
By creating an efficient hub, catering to logistics and inventory
management and providing the necessary infrastructure, Sri Lanka can
continue to maintain its shipping edge due to its geographical position
in the Indian ocean, by guaranteeing a ‘JIT’ delivery commitment with a
lead-time reduction by 50 percent in comparison to goods supplied from
regional logistics-hub in Singapore, will be able to harness two-fold
economic advantage.
The writer is CEO, Academy for International Trade and Transport (AITT),
professional training division of the Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders
Association (SLFFA) |