The business plan of the proposed Hambantota seaport project would focus on as its long term objective to make it a logistics hub that would provide the entire gamut of supply chain management options to the Indian Ocean rim countries.

In an interview with The Island, the Vice Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority Priyantha B. Wickrama said that apart from traditional operations including transhipments and warehousing, the port would offer services which are offered by other regional logistics hubs of Dubai and Singapore.

"The strategic location of Hambantota in the Bay of Bengal being just a few miles ahead off the east-west main shipping route would enable us to compete with the existing ports, Wicrema said.

The Hambantota port is expected to be completed in three stages spanning from June 2007 to 2020 where the first stage is expected to be completed by 2010.

When completed, the port would contain more than 11 km. of berthing area including cruise terminals, repair berths, general cargo births and facilities to load and discharge special cargos such as gas, dry bulk and liquids.

"The East-West shipping route would provide a continuous flow of inbound and outbound vessels, which is the most essential factor for the supply chain management," Wickrama said.

"This would provide a steady supply of raw materials and semi finished goods for value addition in here and many channels to ship them to consumers throughout the world," he said.

Wickrama said that the project also includes automated dry bulk and liquid loading and discharging facilities and special stores and packing plants for the liquids such as palm oil and dry bulk cargos like cement, sugar and wheat flour.

As a logistics hub, we are focusing mainly on the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh Indian East coast, India’s West coast, Thailand, Pakistan and Iran, but we found that there is a huge potential in other market segments such as African countries in some industries such as petroleum and automobile, Wickrama said.

"We have reserved 50 hectares for motor assemblies and repair and service yards for reconditioning used vehicles because we felt that there is an immediate potential for a vehicle hub port for the region in both brand new and reconditioned markets" Wickrama said.

He said that the port could provide many services for the international used vehicle traders such as vehicle consolidating and reconditioning facilities.

Wickrama said that the duty concessions available for value added goods from Sri Lanka under free trade agreements between India and Pakistan is a major plus point for the logistics industry because by being based in Hambantota, global manufacturers could access both markets under favourable duty conditions with the necessary value addition in Sri Lanka.