Being host to the most efficient sea and airport in South Asia,Colombo, is fast lever aging its competitive advantages as a regional multi country consolidation (MCC) centre in this region.
Since the late 19th Century, Colombo’s strategic location in the Indian ocean close to East-West shipping routes has played a pivotal role in sustaining and developing of trade between Far Eastand Western Europe. While the Colombo sea port played a significant role, its airport too is now being elevated to the level of a major regional aviation hub;once again due to its strategic locationand operational efficiency as a leading multi-country consolidation point in the region.
Today, a major success story is our ability to seize the opportunities inproviding multi-country consolidation container services and sea/air consolidation from the Indian Sub-continent toUSA, Europe, Middle East & Far East & vice-versa.
The efficient, smooth running infra structure together with long established trade links with India, Bangladesh, Pakistanand Maldives constitute a superb foundation for MCC operations out of Colombo to the ever-important and fast growing South Asian region as a whole. As multi national logistics companies consider a location to focus on setting up their operations, Colombo emerges as the obvious choice for many reasons.
The advantage Colombo has as a leading MCC hub is that most of the cities in the Indian subcontinent can be reached from Colombo by air in less than four hours. Similarly, South Indian ports can be accessed by sea in less than 24 hours thus further emphasising Colombo’s strategic geographic location as the gateway to its giant neighbour of over one billion consumers.
The Bandaranaike International Airport(BIA), is also a leading hub for air transportation in South Asia. To anyone using Colombo as a consolidation point the rates and facilities offered byColombo for multi-country consolidation and sea/air cargo handling are an economically viable option.
These unique features of Colombo no doubt act as catalysts for adding value to logistics chains.
With Sri Lanka developing as amajor global logistics hub in the SouthAsian region, there is immense scope and potential for those in the region to make use of these facilities and become competitive in the global market place.In an environment where air lines and shipping lines are integrating services to curb rising operating costs Colombo becomes a more viable option for MCC and sea/air cargo handling.
The Free Trade agreement (FTA) signed with India, has resulted in amarked improvement in the bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka over the past few years. Many investors are now eying Colombo as a launch pad to setup their production facilities to enter the lucrative Indian market. This has created new opportunities for international freight forwarders and logistics companiesto expand their business scope and operations.