The government wants more public-private partnerships (PPP) to take place enabling the private sector to invest in state sector and earn benefits opined Minister of Aviation and Shipping, Nimal Siripala de Silva.
He was addressing the 41stannul general meeting of Sri Lanka Logistics and Freight Forwarders Association (SLFFA) held at the Shangri-La hotel.
“That is what we are going to do in the Srilankan Airlines,” Minister De Silva said. He said the public-private sector participation is already working at the Colombo port. “I do not want to say that the Government Sector is useless but we need to do huge reforms in the public sector,” he said.
“In the port of Colombo while we have our own two terminals another terminal is built in ECT, another by WICT, which we have given to India Adani Group as a joint venture. The other terminal is SAGT which is jointly done with John Keells. We have another terminal also of JCT as JCT5. We should not be jealous of the private sector profits.”
“We should allow them to make money and then tax them with ‘fair’ tax policies. Some of the tax policies adopted in the recent past decorated our country. Now, we are changing them.”
“Although the ports authority has no dollars to spend on development we have to invest USD 75 million towards Eastern Terminal (ECT) development. We have a road map on how to find dollars and ensure that the ECT also will become a reality. At the same time, for the JCT, we are investing another USD 400 million to expand the capacity and automation is necessarily new.”
“I have observed that more women participate in the port and we are already training 25 women at Mahapola institute as Gantry Crane Operators. That is an initial step and I will ensure that we will increase this amount.”
