Maersk Line - The largest container shipping line globally and a market leader in Sri Lanka fully supports the 2018 Budget proposals made by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to open up the shipping and logistics sector to foreign investments and introduction of an independent port regulator.
Managing Director India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for Maersk Line, Steve Felder in a statement issued on the subject mentioned “Maersk Line supports any efforts that governments make to liberalize and improve the business environment for the maritime industry, and for our customers.
“In this spirit, we commend the proposals tabled in the Sri Lankan parliament last week, which included removing the restriction on foreign ownership of shipping agencies and amendment of the Merchant Shipping Act, which are intended to further support the development of Colombo as a key Maritime hub.”
The liberalization of shipping agencies is expected to reduce transaction costs for carriers using Colombo as a transshipment hub thereby making it attractive for shipping lines like Maersk to further increase volumes especially given the growth of new transshipment hubs in this region.
Felder further mentioned that if the proposals tabled in the Parliament last Thursday which included removing therestriction on foreign ownership of shipping agencies, and the amendment of the Merchant Shipping Act, are approved, we will engage closely with our headquarters and our valued partners in Sri Lanka, and together evaluate options on increasing our footprint in Sri Lanka.
Maersk Line, the global containerized division of the Maersk Group has employees in 325 offices across 125 countries and a fleet of more than 500 vessels along with 1.9 million containers, with the global reach and resources to accommodate customers’ broad transportation needs.
Maersk Group, as a worldwide conglomerate, operates in over 140 countries and have a workforce of over 108,000 employees. In addition to owning one of the world’s largest shipping companies, they are involved in a wide range of activities in the transport, energy, logistics, retail and manufacturing industries.
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