Sri Lanka can be the live lab of future mobility technology in the region, said Sheran Fernando-Chairman, the Ceylon Motor Traders Association.
Speaking on Current Developments in Sustainable Mobility and Business Opportunities in Sri Lanka, at the First German-Sri Lankan Conference on Sustainable Mobility held in Colombo yesterday, Fernando stressed the need to find innovative ways to give a further flip to local transport industry and added that key issues such as congestion, pollution, high cost in fuel, that grapple the growth of the industry to a great extent should be addressed and solved in a cost effective manner to achieve set industry targets.
Moreover, he said his association will give inputs to the government as to how both countries, Sri Lanka and Germany could work together to make a significant improvement on local transport sector.
Also he stressed the need to explore how German manufacturing capabilities and Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning could help both economies go forward.
“We just need to find possible ways of establishing that,” Fernando said.
Fernando also described mobility as an intermodal transport platform that will get people from anywhere using multiplicity of service.
“Going forward, we could link India with this platform. So we could travel regionally on this platform. This technology will bring us into a platform, where we can then go towards autonomous, connected, electric and shared mobility. That’s where the world of transportation is going,”Fernando noted.
Presenting a model that comprises three components which include policy, platform and product, he said these three components should work simultaneously in a planned manner to solve problems of congestion, pollution and high cost in fuel in Sri Lanka .
“The best partner for us to deal with these issues is Germany. However, their solutions won’t be the cheapest but they’re robust, and are of high quality. So ultimately their technological capabilities will bring value to the Sri Lankan economy in a big way. Furthermore he added the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project will bring in necessary hardware and platform for shared mobility in Sri Lanka.
“Personally, I’m supportive of it. It will help modenising Sri Lankan transport sector in a big way.” He also pointed out the necessity to encourage the transport of goods via rail, water in Sri Lanka.
“And we should be again leaning on countries like Germany to develop the policy for autonomous vehicles when the technology is ready. In terms of policy collaborations; I see a lot of opportunities for Germany and Sri Lanka to work together. The issue of pollution and congestion needs today’s solution.” he said.
As the official representative of German business in Sri Lanka, the delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka (AHK Sri Lanka) had organized this event on the occasion of a German high-ranking business delegation, which was attended by about 100 decision makers from politics and business.
Chief Delegate of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka, Andreas Hergenroether who is currently on a fact finding mission in Sri Lanka speaking at the event stated: ”We are very delighted that we have today world market leaders such as business giants Siemens, MAN and MTU together with worldwide recognized German SMEs such as HPC, Pfeiffer Drako, WPS and Hartmann and Koenig presenting state of the art solutions focused on the saving of energy saving and the reduction of polluting emissions. German companies could be strategic partners of Sri Lanka in the different fields of mobility such as ports, airports, E-mobility and public transports”.
AHK Sri Lanka is part of the German Chamber network, 142 offices worldwide representing about 3, 6 million German member companies. AHK Sri Lanka supports German and Sri Lankan companies in the same way with its strong commitment to fair business, a level playing field, transparency and free trade.
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