Thursday, August 1, 2019

‘Colombo North Port to focus on future needs’

Sirimevan Ranasinghe

The construction of the Colombo North Port is aimed for the requirements of 2040 and beyond and by then the expectations of the entire Colombo Port would be 28 million TEUs, Sirimevan Ranasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Shipping told the third AGM of the Sri Lanka Association of NVOCC Agents held in Colombo recently.

Ranasinghe however cautioned that sufficient strides should be taken to make Lankan ports more attractive with new additions and more logistic facilities to attract more business. Failing to do so other ports in the region will take advantage of that and carve into the country’s business by improving their capacity to handle more vessels and making value additions such as multiple countries consolidation (MCC) and creating full container load (FCL) to make their port economical for ships to do their business.

He said from a very early history, Sri Lanka has been at the centre for international trade and this wonderful geographical position right in the centre of the Indian Ocean has mandated most shipping liners to make use of Lankan harbours which were sufficiently deep and with so little deviations from the slots.

Ranasinghe therefore requested the contribution of the expertise of all stakeholders to help the authorities take the right decisions that would lead to the improvement of the facilities of Colombo and other ports in the country.

This in turn will increase the country’s strength in supporting the growth of all stakeholders and thereby, the Lankan economy. He also requested support for the National Port Master Plan which is programmed to cater to the requirements of the next three decades which has considered the business projections for that period.

Ranasinghe however noted that a strong requirement now exist in the shipping trade to look at new avenues, however strong they were and business ventures should look at either different approaches or something totally new, to take the industry into new heights.

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