Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2023-01-23

South Asia Commercial and Logistics Hub Project

- The Port of Colombo which is the largest Port in Sri Lanka, is also the main hub Port in the South Asian Region. Converting the Port of Colombo into a Logistics Hub is one of the basic strategic goals of the National Port Master Plan of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. The service supply areas of Battenberg area and Bloemendhal area of the Colombo South Port have been identified to be developed under Public-private Partnership. As such a proposal made by the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) to implement the first phase of the proposed project with an investment of US $ 150 million, has been evaluated by a Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee. Accordingly, based on the recommendations made by the said Committee, the proposal made by the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation to implement the proposed project as a public-private partnership project between China Merchant Port Company (CM Port), Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) Company and the Sri Lanka Port Authority, was approved by the Cabinet.