Dr. Prasantha Jayamanna, who assumed duties as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) on January 20, said the Port of Colombo will become the 13th largest in the world with the addition of another seven million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit) capacity by 2024-2025. Currently the Colombo Port has a capacity of seven million TEUs.
Dr. Jayamanna, also spoke about his vision for Sri Lanka’s ports in making them vibrant business-friendly entities.
Referring to containers held up at the Colombo Port and demurrage issue, he said the SLPA has offered importers a special waiver of penal charges from January 31. The procedure to apply for the waiver is on the SLPA website.
Dr. Jayamanna was the SLPA Vice Chairman since September 2020. He is a Doctor of Business Administration and the most awarded Youngest Entrepreneur in Sri Lanka. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Sydney, Australia, OPM from the Harvard Business School and LPI from Harvard University.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
Q:What is your vision for SLPA and how do you work to accomplish it?
A Our vision is to make the Colombo Port the maritime hub of South East Asia and one of the outstanding ports in the world. As per the President’s Vistas of Prosperity, we want to develop the East Container Terminal, West Container Terminal and other terminals. To accomplish this vision, we have already started the second phase of construction work of the East Container Terminal in January.
The West Container Terminal operations will start this month. Since two terminals are going to operate, we will add another capacity of over seven million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit) to the Colombo Port. After Independence, this is the first time that the Colombo Port is increasing to a 100 percent capacity. From Independence up to now, we had only a seven million TEU capacity but now we will add another seven to 7.5 million capacity by 2024-2025.
With this, the Colombo Port will come as the 13th largest port in the world. This is one of our first priorities. While we achieve this transshipment capacity and the handling capacity of 14 million in Colombo Port, we will need other support services. Therefore, we aim to develop logistic centres to add more capacity to Colombo Port to handle multi-country consolidation and value additions.
Similarly, we have started the expansion of the oil berthing capacity of Colombo Port which will cut off unwanted delays for oil vessel berthing, which in turn provides bunkering fuel to the ships coming to Colombo. These vessels will unload oil to the JCT oil bank and from there customers will buy and sell to various vessels as bunker oil. This has also commenced and will continue.
We are also in the process of consultation and stakeholder engagement related to the Port Community System which is a connectivity system of those using the port including Customs, Sri Lanka Ports Authority and other Governmental institutes and private sector. This will enhance the ease of doing business in Sri Lanka and will be a milestone achievement. We are working with the Minister of Sports and Digital Infrastructure to achieve this milestone. These are the highlights of the work at Colombo Port, other than the green initiatives and efficiency improvement initiatives.
Before becoming Chairman, I was the Vice Chairman of SLPA. During the pandemic, we submitted over 15 Cabinet papers as per the Minister’s decision, related to various development and disaster management activities. Now that the pandemic is over, we have the liberty of executing the approved projects such as Galle Port Symposium, Trincomalee Port-related activities, logistics development and so on. During the past one and a half years, we paved the way to do all these things. Since the ground is set, it is easier for me to carry these out to make the Colombo Port the most vibrant business entity in the world.
Q:How do you plan to improve the efficiency of the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT)?
A The Jaya Terminal is handled with old machinery purchased several years ago. Some are 30-40 years old. Although we are paying for loans, most are at obsolete level. But taking the economic condition and growth of other terminals, we have decided to slowly modernise JCT’s equipment. Similarly, we have started putting up new gates and structures to monitor the efficiency level of employees and implement best practices to improve the visibility of individual performances. Through that efficiency levels are expected to go up.
Q:What is the work planned for other ports in the country?
A The Galle Port is identified as a tourist port as per the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor. We have started the process. On January 26, we had a Galle Port Symposium with investors, local and foreign, to discuss this. On February 9, we issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) for this purpose where various investors could obtain them and send proposals to develop Galle Port as a tourist port.
Regarding the Trincomalee Port, it was in the clutches of some monopolised vendors for several years, barred for other industrialists by using various laws. Minister of Ports and Shipping presented a Cabinet paper and removed this obstacle. By March this year, we will call EOIs from investors to develop Trincomalee as an industrial port. We expect to bring industries there as it is a natural and strategic port with a lot of land. Therefore, we believe we’ll be able to achieve a lot from this.
Kankesanthurai Port work is progressing as scheduled. The work on the rehabilitation of the jetty is progressing and consultancy work is completing.
Q:What has been done about the containers held up at the port and demurrage issue?
A With the direction of the President and guidance of the Minister, we offered importers, who had containers which were not cleared, a special waiver after a bank’s confirmation from January 31. It is a waiver of penal charges from the SLPA terminal. The procedure to apply for the waiver is on our website. Now there is no burden for them with the foreign currency shortage issue. Now hundreds of containers are being cleared from the port. Container release is improving daily. There are only a few containers held at the port now.
Q:How do you view the interest of other countries on Sri Lanka’s ports?
A Everyone knows Sri Lanka’s strategic importance. Unless we have a business-conducive environment here, no one would come. Now we have created a very business friendly environment at Colombo Port where any nationality, not only China and India, could come and invest in Colombo Port and jump into the bandwagon of growth. We see it as a positive thing. We admire the interest countries like India, China and Japan in Colombo Port.
It is a good sign that they admire and are comfortable with the efficiency levels and business growth. And we want them to get more involved in the activities of Colombo Port.
They have a lot of business that goes through this sea route and this is essential for our growth. Tapping into a small percentage of their shipment, companies and business would be sufficient for Sri Lanka to emerge as a much developed country. We are business friendly and welcome them with open hearts.
Q:How did the port manage the Covid pandemic?
A From the start of the pandemic, the management and its team created a coordination centre to prevent the virus from spreading. We created awareness and a mechanism where those on land would not get affected with those in ships. We prevented Covid from coming into the country through the port. There were many programs to protect the employees with various mechanisms we deployed on the ground. Contact between people was minimal and some employees worked from home. Likewise, we were able to eradicate a major disaster that could have happened. We never closed the ports and continued work with the same efficiencies and mechanisms.
Similarly, the President instructed to issue vaccines to the ports and 99 percent of employees were vaccinated with all three doses. We are coping with the situation very well. We have also created an intermediate Covid treatment centre for port employees. This way, we eliminated the burden the Government could have had.
Q:How would you engage with the SLPA trade unions?
A Our trade unions comprise members who love our ports. They know that the SLPA is looking after them. They get some of the best salaries in the country. Ports have done well for them. They also know how ports has contributed to uplift their lives and benefited their families. It’s a reciprocal feeling that both parties have. I see them as a big stakeholder or part of the port community and I’m engaging with them positively. I want them to be vibrant and engage positively with us for the development of ports without bringing in their political affiliations. Otherwise, they would work for political agendas rather than their wellbeing. We need them to go beyond party lines and political affiliations and work with us.