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Joint Venture Sets Sri Lankan Port Buzzing Again

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Joint Venture Sets Sri Lankan Port Buzzing Again Wednesday, September 19, 2018 CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION 2 PAGE TWO Joint venture sets Sri Lankan port buzzing again Island nation looks to development model used in Shenzhen, Pan Mengqi reports in Sri Lanka. fishing town in one country embroiled in a civil of the most underde­ war since 1983 that lasted for veloped regions in nearly 30 years. The area where Sri Lanka is taking a the lighthouse is located has leaf out of Shenzhen’s book.A been under high levels of secu­ The town is looking to the rity for 20 years. development model used at a When the civil war ended in port in the city in Guangdong 2009, Sri Lanka began to revi­ province to help fuel economic talize its economy and rebuild growth in the Indian Ocean its damaged port business. But island nation. then, the financial crisis devas­ Hambantota is on Sri Lan­ tated the global port industry. ka’s south coast. A few years ago, the southwest area of the Transparent offer town was merely jungle. Some In 2008 and 2009, major wooden fishing boats lay container ports in the United stranded on the beach, and States experienced negative fishermen would often see growth, and throughput snakes, elephants and pea­ growth at leading ports in cocks in the area, according to Europe and China also fell Yuri Kannangara, a local. From left: Vessels arrive at the Port of Hambantota; 25­year­old Pasindu Nayanajith is a field coordinator with Colombo International Container Terminals; the joint venture sharply. The throughput Kannangara has worked in has 1,500 employees, of which more than 1,480 are Sri Lankan. PHOTOS BY PAN MENGQI / CHINA DAILY AND ZHU RUIQING / XINHUA growth rate at Guangzhou Port the shipping industry for the in Guangdong dropped to 2.9 past 20 years. But the 51­year­ percent in the third quarter of old has spent much of that time meals at work and salaries, 2008. Such low growth was away from his loved ones, some others are about family unprecedented in the port’s working in South African ports and relationship issues. But I’m hundreds of years of history. as a mechanic. Job prospects happy to help them solve all At the time, the port indus­ and salaries there are more types of issues,” he said. try’s enthusiasm for investing in competitive, which is impor­ CICT has 1,500 employees, of the Port of Colombo, which was tant as he has a five­member which more than 1,480 are Sri then open for international bid­ family to support. Lankan. During the 35­year ding, was virtually non­existent, Hambantota, his home contract period, CICT expects to with many companies with­ town, lies within just 20 kilo­ add more than $2 billion in rev­ drawing their earlier bids. In meters of one of the world’s enue to the Sri Lankan econo­ 2009, only CMG sent a tender to busiest shipping lanes, my, bringing in some 5,000 new the Sri Lankan government. through which some 200 to jobs. Hu Jianhua, vice­president 300 vessels daily carry two­ For Thusitha George, the of CMG, said everyone at the thirds of global energy prod­ operations manager at CICT, his company was concerned that ucts and half of all “best brother” is Zhu Mingwei. the sluggish international eco­ containerized cargo. Zhu, who works in the techni­ nomic and trade situation But the town’s port cal department, often helps would damage the port indus­ remained neglected for dec­ George solve complex technical try after the financial crisis. ades, and Hambantota wit­ problems in his work. As a local But Hu believed the crisis nessed a long period of low employee, George likes to invite was only cyclical, and as a development due to a lack of his Chinese colleagues to try Sri result, it was necessary for Chi­ industry and basic infrastruc­ Lankan black tea after work. na to help Sri Lanka rebuild its ture, not to mention a modern The port was recently economy. commercial port. ranked the 13th best­connect­ His assessment proved to be Things have changed in just A vessel docks at the Port of Hambantota, where business has recovered dramatically after a period of low development. ed port in the world by Drewry correct. In 2010, the crisis eased a year. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Port Connectivity Index, a glob­ and several major internation­ In July last year, Sri Lanka al shipping analyst. al port giants proposed better and China signed a joint ven­ It also won the Best Contain­ offers to the Sri Lankan govern­ ture agreement to begin opera­ shipped vehicles, but the num­ an industrial zone at the port. It China Merchant Group. er Terminal in Asia award in the ment, hoping to re­tender for tions at Hambantota Port. ber fell to 2,455 the following is hoped that the zone will act At that time, Li and his com­ Under 4 million TEUs (twenty­ the project. China Merchants Group and year. By 2011, just 993 vehicles as an engine to drive economic pany were struggling to break foot equivalent units) category “But the Sri Lankan gov­ Sri Lanka’s Ports Authority were handled at the port. development in the region, and colonizers’ monopoly on Yang­ at the Asian Freight, Logistics ernment insisted on handing agreed to jointly operate the gradually attract investors In less than a year, tze River inland shipping. and Supply Chain Awards for over the project to China,” Hu port for 99 years through Ham­ Port a priority worldwide. Today, CMG is one of the two consecutive years, which said. bantota International Port In 2005, constructing a new In the first half of this year, the value of land in world’s largest and most com­ Huang said was the result of the He said there were two rea­ Group and Hambantota Inter­ port and connecting it to the joint venture between Chi­ petitive companies in the joint efforts by Chinese and Sri sons for this. “First, our bid­ national Port Services. Colombo via a planned indus­ na and Sri Lanka, which was the Hambantota transportation and aviation Lankan employees. ding process is legally Kannangara is now a deputy trial belt was prioritized in Sri formally started in December, area has increased businesses. Ten years ago, the Port of compliant and the bid pro­ general manager at the bus­ Lanka’s “Mahinda Vision for attracted 142 ships to berth at It has built ports and high­ Colombo was on the brink of posal was impeccable and tling port, in charge of a depart­ the Future”, proposed by its docks, more than the num­ three or four ways in various countries to bankruptcy, due to civil war transparent. Second, Sri Lan­ ment that ensures all the fast­ former president Mahinda ber of vessels handled by the boost international connectivi­ and the global financial crisis. ka respects the spirit of con­ developing facility’s machinery Rajapaksa. This aims to trans­ Port of Hambantota in the times.” ty, but the company believes Colombo residents have a tract, which also proved that functions well. form Sri Lanka into “a hub for whole of last year. that connectivity between peo­ unique habit. When calculat­ we had chosen the right part­ But during the initial phase sea transport, aviation, busi­ Tissa Wickramasinghe, Tissa Wickramasinghe, ple sometimes outweighs its ing the distance between the ner to cooperate with.” of the cooperation project, ness, energy and knowledge”. HIPG’s chief operations officer, HIPG’s chief operations huge construction programs. capital and other places, they Soon, the ancient Port of many observers expressed Rajapaksa believed Sri Lan­ said automakers from Japan, officer always take the Old Colombo Colombo began to revive. doubts, saying it appeared too ka needed a new economic South Korea and India have Happy to help Lighthouse as the starting Under the joint operation difficult and it was not necessa­ growth engine, and Hamban­ begun transshipping increas­ At Colombo International point. between China and Sri Lanka, ry to build an international tota Port, close to the world’s ing numbers of vehicles al contractors and financial Container Terminals, a subsidi­ The lighthouse, built by the container throughput at the port in such a poor area. busiest shipping lanes, proved through Hambantota, attract­ institutions competed for the ary of CMG that builds and country’s colonizer Britain, has port increased from 4.18 mil­ Feng Ming, a deputy general to be a good option. ed by its convenient location, contract to build Hambantota operates the South Container witnessed both the prosperity lion TEUs to 5.74 million TEUs operations manager at Ham­ “But Sri Lanka has a very deep­water berths and the Port, but China Merchant Terminal at the Port of Colom­ and the suffering of the Port of between 2012 and 2016. This bantota Port, said that in the weak industrial base, so there’s availability of storage space. Group offered the best propos­ bo, Chinese and Sri Lankan Colombo. growth was fueled by CICT. past, the ships used by auto­ little internal demand,” Feng Since December, 55,959 cars al. This not only took into employees call each other In 1912, the colonial govern­ In 2014, the port became the makers in East Asia and India said of the challenges being have been shipped through account building a port, but “brother”. ment established the Colombo fastest­growing in the world had to call at Colombo to refuel faced. “We are developing this Hambantota. also considered how the port Whenever CICT chief execu­ Port Commission and modern­ as its throughput increased by or unload vehicles for other port very slowly, but steadily”.
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