COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port has been ranked among the world’s best 25 ports according to the Alphaliner rankings in 2017, a Ports and Shipping Ministry statement said. In 2016 Alphaliner has ranked Colombo Port at the 23rd place, three notches up from the 2015 rankings. All the ports which are carrying out container operations are included in the Alphaliner rankings. The Colombo Port was ranked at 27th place in 2014 and at 26th place in 2015 in Alphaliner rankings. Colombo Port operated 5.2 million containers in 2015. In 2016 the volume increased by 10.6 percent to 5.7 million containers. Increase in the depth of the route to access the Colombo Port, enhancing the depth of the terminals, expansion of terminals, increase in the number of terminal operations have opened the gate for the world’s largest vessels to enter the Colombo Port. These developments have created a positive impact on the Colombo Port and have paved the way to lift up its rank.
Minister of Ports and Shipping Arjuna Ranatunga said the secret behind this victory is the building of good business environment. “Private sector has been engaged in businesses related to Colombo Port in addition to Sri Lanka Ports Authority. In the previous era these institutions were not united. But under the present government we were able to introduce a common business plan for these institutions. Through this new method we have been able to unite these institutions together to develop the Colombo Port while protecting their unique identity. Thereby all the stakeholders have contributed to develop the Colombo Port as one team,” the Minister said. The Minister said a project is being implemented for infrastructure development in the Colombo Port and expressed belief that the Port will be ranked among the World’s best 20 ports, next year as a result of this project. The Minister emphasized that a good environment has been created in the Colombo Port to carry out international trading activities and transparency of all the transactions have been certified.
