Mr. Channa Gunawardena Chairman, SLFFA
“Today we hold our 44th annual
general meeting on the backdrop of an important political change subsequent to
a peaceful presidential election. On behalf of our association, I would like to
congratulate his Excellency Anura Kumara Dissanayake being elected as the 9th
Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. We
earnestly look forward to working with his excellency, and the subject experts
closely towards the betterment of our industry in coming months.
The Global politics in the mean
while posed new challenges to our industry especially the on-going Wars both in
Middle East and in Ukraine. The volatility in the macro environment has become
part and parcel of our industry over the last couple of years to an extent that
we now are quite immune to such developments.
Looking back at our engagements
for the last 12 months, my team, along with the subcommittees, continued to
work towards achieving our goals in the respective areas. I will not go into
details now since those are elaborated adequately in our annual report but
would rather focus on what we intend to do in the future.
Digitization remains a very high
priority for us and will continue our efforts in persuading authorities to
expedite the timely implementation of all such initiatives from ASYHUB,
National Single Window to Port and Airport Community Systems. We play a very
active role in each of these committees entrusted with the task of
implementation. Hopefully we will receive the necessary backing from the
political hierarchy, which is essential.
We will continue to lobby for the
prevalence of free market forces, as opposed to a regulated industry since we
believe that’s crucial if industry players are to effectively compete and offer
the best services to local and international clients. However, we will not
endorse any unethical practices and will support the regulator in taking
necessary steps to curb such behaviours.
Today there is a lot of
discussion about transhipment activities at the Colombo Port for FCL cargo and
how it’s position within the Indian sub-Continent being threatened by the
emergence of other Ports. However, we feel there is no adequate dialogue taking
place focusing on harnessing our opportunities for handling Multi Country
Consolidation inside the Colombo Port which has huge potential. The Port
currently lacks required level of infrastructure to attract new players and
unfortunately, we don’t see any traction in the proposed private facility
inside the Port, which should have helped the cause immensely. We intend to
actively engage with Sri Lanka Port Authority in this area since it has a very
significant revenue generation potential for the country with benefits to our
membership as well. This will be one of the main tasks of our ocean
subcommittee during the year.
We believe there is tremendous
potential for Colombo Airport to become an alternate Sea- Air & air – air
hub for Dubai, especially during the peak season in Bangladesh. As you may
know, some of our members are already actively involved in this area despite
many operational challenges at the Airport. SLFFA has submitted our proposals
to AASL highlighting the importance of ensuring these requirements are met when
the airport expansion project go ahead, and we are closely following up on the
developments.
Now I’m shifting my attention to
a different area, Corruption may have been the most commonly used word both on
the political stages as well as at logistics related forums as far as I can
remember. Whilst we leave the Politicians to “walk the talk”, I humbly request
each of our members to play an active role in upholding ethical practices. As
you are already aware, The Anti-Corruption Act No. 9 0f 2023, which was
certified on 8th of August, paves the way for reporting of corrupt practices
with necessary protection for Whistle blowers. Also, recently the Sri Lanka
Customs have launched an internal affairs unit with aim of curbing such
activities. I believe it’s our duty to support such initiatives as a
progressive association and my team will arrange necessary awareness sessions
in coming months to educate the membership more on this.
In the area of capacity
development, AITT continues to play a very vital role in ensuring our future
logisticians are equipped with up-to-date learnings. We just concluded our
certificate awarding ceremony for 91 participants, and we are evaluating the
possibility of taking AITT to overseas markets in the region along with IATA.
There is great potential in neighboring countries such as India and Maldives.
In the research and development
front, we are engaging the World Bank Officials to better understand mechanisms
as to how Sri Lanka’s LPI ranking is judged. We feel the current ranking does
not correctly reflect the actual situation and these engagements will help to
take corrective measures if any.
Besides those, we are in the
process of revamping our Articles of Association to suite the current
requirements of the industry and this will be presented to the membership for
adaptation in due course.
The standard trading conditions
are another area of focus, and we are in the process of revamping this with the
assistance of an eminent legal professional.
Today we face many challenges in
our debt recovery process from customers and often our members are at the
receiving end. Having realised this, we are currently discussing possibilities
of incorporating an arbitration clause to our standard trading conditions which
will provide a viable alternate to legal proceedings in the event of a bad or prolonged
debt. We will educate you further on this in the near future.
Making necessary adjustments to
freight forwarder liability insurance policy is another area of focus and the
committee has already put forward the draft for necessary input from the
membership and I kindly request all of you to help us in this regard by giving
your valuable input.
National Logistics Awards, which
is one of our flagship events, will be held in October this year as you are
already aware, and we have seen a significant growth in the number of
participants this year. Our intention is now to hold this event every other
year.
Let me conclude my speech by
announcing a very interesting arrangement which we have finalised with Qatar
airways which will immensely benefit our members when they travel overseas.
This partnership allows all SLFFA member companies to get a discount of 12- 15%
on Economy class and 20% on business class for their travel to UK, Europe,
Americas and Africa.
The great thing about this
program is that these year around discounts are applicable for both you and
your family. Of course, this is subject to terms and conditions which will be
circulated by our secretariat in coming weeks. I must thank Sujan Malawana for
spear heading the negotiations and appreciate the support of Niral
Kadawathaarchchi in finalizing the arrangement.
In signing off, I would like to
extend my sincere appreciation to the committee, sub-committees, SLFFA members
and stakeholders. Without your support, we would not have been able to achieve
all that. As we enter a new year, SLFFA remains committed towards performing
our role as the apex body that leads and guides the industry into the future.
Thank you”
