I am referring to the small islander talk that Sri Lanka may become a colony of China, by setting up the Colombo Port City Project and invite the world to trade on our shores.
by Victor Cherubim
As an island nation we tend to have a mindset that what matters most to us is what counts. We may be in the middle of the Indian Ocean and we are a full fledged member of the society of nations, United Nations, and although we have signed up to as many international treaties binding on us, we often behave that the world owes us a place in the world, rather than commanding that space and place by how we perceive our role in the international order of things.
At last we can see an opportunity to play our role in the world scene will soon be opening. Ringing our hands and saying to the world, what can we do is no longer an option? We have to grasp the nettle and exert to play centre stage in the global scene.
I am referring to the small islander talk that Sri Lanka may become a colony of China, by setting up the Colombo Port City Project and invite the world to trade on our shores.
Yes, We Can be global?
Ports around the world, as seen in recent times, have been transformed by “big money”. The success of ports to attract container traffic from smaller ports, is the result of good, creative business management.
We can be,if we are not already there,the hub in the south Indian Ocean. The days are gone when ships used to call at every port to discharge their cargoes in containers. Now time is money, feeder vessels are there to carry cargoes off- loaded in port hubs.
Need I say, you have to trawl the world for business to come to our port of Colombo, for cargoes, for transhipment, for joining a coterie of larger ports and share their trade through our port as well.
Once upon a time, money was the be all and end all of business. Money alone was enough to make the difference ( if it was spent wisely). But I want to say with all humility, that the “Era of the Coronavirus” has changed all that. It is no longer the case, in part because there is so much of it, I mean money, floating around like “flotsam and jetsam”. We see it sloshing around port cities, awaiting for investment.
What is more important than finance?
Why are Port Cities, like Singapore, Dubai and perhaps, Tsingtao, flushed with cash. There is only one word to describe it. It is called “trade”. Rather, shall we say international trade. It is the location of ports that attract finance.
The idea of Colombo becoming the biggest port in the Indian Ocean in 2050 is not a pipe dream?
The idea of becoming one of the world’s largest trading centres is just not vanity or business machismo. This is the order of the day. Ports and adjacent Port Cities are what many in the know call as “massive brands”, like fashion accessories. Do I have to say more.The answer is simple, may be too simple, yet a very bold vision.
We talk about the Sri Lanka Rupee reaching Rs.203 to the Dollar. We talk about our debt spiralling? We have to have faith in ourselves, if we are to come out of our crisis?
The surest way we will come of our crisis is if we think global. You have to be global, but all the same time, we must be local. We cannot solve our crisis all on our own. Large business centres around the world have grown “too big for their boots”. They are looking at collaboration, cooperation with smaller nations and up and coming ports.Next to Finance and Time, it is location?
We need to draw the expertise of some of the big cities and shipping ports to provide a pipeline for the development of the Port City of Colombo.
As you all know any great idea needs to have a host and it is high time that we think of our hosts. Our hosts are the very big ports who are looking at partners to share their business they no longer want to cater for. We call this idea “glocalisation”. It implies taking a global product , but adapting it to the local market.
What seems to me to excite me most, in my old age,is the vast pool of ports,trade and financial centres, who are looking for partners in trade. The common theme in these centres is ingenuity development around the world,a Consortium of Ports, all working in tandem, under a strict guideline, to deliver what local people want.
It is high time our Prime Minister sends teams of shipping scouts around Big Ports around the world, to see if we can collaborate with them and be able to globalise the Colombo Port City model, within a set timeframe.
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