COLOMBO: Situated at the cusp of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, barely a degree north of the equator, Sri Lanka has a geographical location that port planners pay fortunes for.
Yet for all the strategic plans drawn up over the past three decades, the island has progressed little beyond its role as a transshipment port –more than 80% of the cargo on ships docked in Sri Lanka is never unloaded here, but transshipped onward.
Most of this cargo is bound for Indian ports, through terminals run by Sri Lanka’s state-owned Ports Authority, the China Merchants-backed Colombo International Container Terminals, and India’s Adani Group-linked Colombo West International Terminal.
Very good article. Surprising though that the SL govt bureaucracy is as bad as that of India’s. Is the decision to not exploit the strategic location also in part influenced by environmental concerns?
Yes it’s very interesting. Sri Lanka is the place of the future.
We are surprised Indians aren’t flocking there..
India and China both quite clearly have stakes in this. Isn’t Hambantota the one on the 99 year lease to China Merchant Ports?
With India developing the Great Nicobar Port, just 40 nautical miles from the Strait of Malacca, the Adani Port also assumes significance. The Chinese strategy of String of Pearls to encircle India is effectively stymied by this development.
Perhaps SL also doesn’t want to be caught between the two big Asian hegemons and therefore positioning itself as a transhipment hub rather than maximizing its strategic play till such time it is in a better position not just politically but economically and militarily.
Geography might have given it a super strategic location but has also crippled it by being in the neighbourhood of not one but two hegemons, one of which is literally a hop, skip and a jump away. The other one is known to extract its pound of flesh à la Shylock (apologies to Shakespeare and no offense to the Jewish community).
So thinking back to the two essays on Geography is Power and Geography is not Power; which bucket does SL fall in?
we don’t know nearly enough about Sri Lanka.. but this is a good comment..
[…] Pundits: Why Sri Lanka keeps missing its maritime moment, 16 July […]
Delhi has been much much busier, which is good but we haven’t had time to write.