"The Port Of Colombo is already the trans-shipment hub of the South Asian region. The challenge now is to maintain this position in the face of intensifying competition and to increase Sri Lanka’s market share vis-`E0-vis the rest of Asia," notes LMD’s November issue.

The widely read business magazine culls the sentiments of ports chief Saliya Wickramasuriya, former ports chief Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake and Deshabandu Surath Wickramasinghe – an expert on related infrastructure – vis-`E0-vis the nerve centre of Sri Lanka’s trade and commerce: the Colombo port.

For years, LMD notes, many have stressed the need for Sri Lanka to become the maritime hub in the South Asian region. But for the first time, experts confirm Sri Lanka’s present recognition as a hub port for South Asia. And speaking as an industry, representatives of the ports and shipping sector voice their views on other challenges and threats they face.

"We already have hub status. The Colombo port commands the largest throughput of trans-shipment containers in the South Asian region. Sri Lanka will achieve nearly three million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) by the end of this year – of which over 70 per cent will be trans-shipment cargo, which is higher than any of the regional ports," asserts Saliya Wickramasuriya, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

"The SLPA should look beyond Sri Lanka and strive to emerge as a regional multi-port operator. Together with the private sector, the SLPA should pursue a strategy of investing in the development of domestic ports within South Asia," recommends former SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake, who serves on the UNCTAD panel as an expert on ports and shipping.