Is Sri Lanka’s Logistics Hub Steaming Ahead? = ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ක්‍රමෝපායික කේන්ද්‍රස්ථානයක් (Logistics Hub) වීමට සාර්ථක ගමනක යෙදෙන්නේද?

Abstract

Sri Lanka clearly has the potential to become a logistics hub. Over the past years, the Colombo port’s capacity has been expanded as a step towards this goal. However, although expanding supply through capacity expansion is an important necessary step, it is not enough. To be poised for success Sri Lanka needs to generate demand and demand cannot be created by capacity alone. This Insight uses the World Bank’s International Logistics Performance Index (an index which covers 160 economies and is a worldwide survey of multinational freight forwarders and the main express carriers) to show that it is also important to make Sri Lanka competitive on other factors that matter to global logistics players. Investment in soft infrastructure, including IT and process reform must be as much of a priority as increasing port capacity. Sri Lanka’s future in logistics will depend on it.