Sri Lanka opened the 8th Colombo International Maritime and Logistics Conference (CIMC) on Wednesday, a three-day event bringing together more than 500 delegates, regional policymakers, port operators and shipping executives, EconomyNext reported.

The conference runs under the theme “Building a world around us,” and is positioned around the island’s claim to be South Asia’s leading transshipment and logistics hub — a claim made against a backdrop of geopolitical disruption and choke-point risk in the shipping lanes the island sits beside.

The gap between 2.5% and 10%

The sharpest figure of the opening came from Rohan Masakorala, chief executive of the Shippers Academy Colombo, who said shipping and logistics currently contribute only about 2.5% of GDP despite a potential closer to 10%.

That is a fourfold gap in an industry Sri Lanka routinely describes as a national strength, and it is the number that gives the conference its purpose.

The US regulator’s advice: build one of your own

The sharpest policy intervention came from Laura DiBella, chairperson of the US Federal Maritime Commission, who told the conference that Sri Lanka should set up an independent maritime regulatory authority while it still has the chance to consolidate its position as a regional hub, Hiru News reported.

A dedicated regulator modelled on the FMC could oversee shipping alliances, prevent anti-competitive practices, discourage excessive freight rates and set clear rules, she said.

“A clear regulatory framework de-risks the market for foreign direct investment. Capital avoids environments with arbitrary constraints or excessive risk.”

DiBella said Colombo has become an important link in US supply chains, handling roughly 500,000 containers carrying cargo worth about US$30 billion. She argued governments should create the operating environment and leave commercial development to private business, and said the FMC is willing to help Sri Lanka build a competitive regulatory framework.

Daily Mirror reports it was the first time an FMC chair had addressed a South Asian maritime conference. Her appearance is part of the same Colombo visit at which the FMC announced US$15 million for port digital infrastructure and which began last week.

Industry: fix the bottlenecks, not just the transshipment story

A conference panel of business and regional maritime figures warned that Sri Lanka must move beyond its traditional transshipment role and deal with domestic logistical bottlenecks.

Ashraf Omar, chief executive of Brandix Sri Lanka, said export manufacturing is shifting from forecast-based production to demand-driven supply chains, and that delays in reaching international markets erode value quickly in fashion. Manufacturers can cut production times by several days, he said, only for finished goods to sit far longer at ports or with freight forwarders. He called for immediate investment in digital systems to cut cargo transfer times rather than reliance on long-term development plans.

René Piil Pedersen, managing director of A.P. Moller–Maersk Singapore, said emerging hubs generate more value when terminals are integrated with warehouses and free-trade zones. Using Singapore as the example, he described goods entering free-trade zones for market-specific processing or labelling before regional distribution, and said Sri Lanka could develop similar value-added logistics on its position along major shipping routes.

Who opened it

The chief guest was Minister of Ports, Civil Aviation and Energy Anura Karunathilaka, who said the government is prepared to make greater use of the island’s geographical position to strengthen global supply chains. Also present were Western Province Governor and Special Presidential Envoy for Foreign Investments Hanif Yusoof and former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. Daily Mirror describes Masakorala as CIMC’s founder chairman.

What the sessions cover

Discussions extend beyond conventional port operations into high-value logistics, free port operations, automated distribution centres, green technology transitions and bunkering services. Sessions include regional leaders and delegations from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, with a focus on how Sri Lanka can plug into India’s industrial growth.

A South Asia Container Report 2026 is to be unveiled during the forum. The conference is supported by the Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation alongside international industry bodies.

EconomyNext reports that Sri Lanka is aiming to expand container capacity at both Colombo and Hambantota significantly by late 2027.

Timing

The conference opens in a week when the risks it exists to discuss are unusually visible. Brent crude broke $100 a barrel and a tanker was struck in Iraqi waters as vessels were caught up in US–Iran exchanges. It also follows a visit by the US Federal Maritime Commission chair to Colombo, and the Indian Defence Minister’s proposal this week for a joint maritime domain awareness system covering the same waters.

Update (September 13): the conference closes

EconomyNext published a wrap-up of the three-day conference on Sunday, which answers several of the questions the opening reports left open.

The capacity targets. Sri Lanka’s port expansion trajectory targets a nearly 100% increase in new container capacity by the end of 2027, and aims to double total capacity across the Colombo and Hambantota complexes by 2040. The conference reviewed the operational rollout of the East Container Terminal and West Container Terminal, with priorities including quayside bottlenecks, yard crane scheduling, and ensuring terminal depths can accommodate ultra-large container vessels exceeding 24,000 TEUs without costly off-dock waiting.

Where Colombo stands now. The port sits 6 to 10 nautical miles off the main East–West Asia–Europe shipping lane, has entered the top 20 container ports worldwide, and handles nearly 80% of its total container volumes as transshipment bound for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives.

The bottleneck nobody had named: procurement. The sharpest intervention of the closing days came from Amali Rajapaksa, the World Bank’s Senior Infrastructure Specialist for South Asia, who told the forum on day two that procurement capacity is what stands in the way:

“No matter how much planning you do, how much leveling you do, if you don’t fix the procurement capacity, hitting the government right now, you’re not going to get anything done and that is what is really standing in the way right now. And for infrastructure organizations, 90% is procurement. And imagine how much you can get done if you were to fix that.”

What the operational shift actually means. Discussions prioritised moving local port operations toward comprehensive free port zones and bonded logistics centres, on the argument that standard vessel-to-vessel transshipment is no longer sufficient to sustain growth or retain market share. Under free port frameworks, international logistics providers could establish regional distribution hubs directly adjacent to quay walls. Panellists said capabilities in multi-country consolidation, transit value addition, inventory processing and bonded re-export would let Sri Lanka capture higher margins per container.

Digital and ancillary services. Sessions covered a single-window digital Port Community System, electronic bills of lading, and AI for berth allocation and predictive traffic management, with the World Bank and ADB outlining customs modernisation and cybersecurity reforms. Separate discussions covered green bunkering — low-sulfur fuels, LNG and methanol — and expanding ship repair and dry-docking in Colombo and Trincomalee.

The conference closed with a multi-party panel challenging Sri Lanka’s legislative leadership to maintain regulatory stability, update the national maritime legal framework and provide a predictable environment for foreign investment.

A conflict on who opened it. EconomyNext describes FMC chair Laura DiBella as “the chief guest at the opening ceremony.” The Daily Mirror account had the chief guest as Ports Minister Anura Karunathilaka. No outlet reconciles the two. EconomyNext also carries DiBella quotes the earlier reports did not:

“The amount of growth and potential that is here in Colombo in Sri Lanka, as a port by comparison around the world, is immense, absolutely immense. And the fact that you continue to succeed again and again and again in the face of incredible conflict is a testament to really where you can go.”

On the FMC’s own remit she said it monitors competition rather than antitrust: “If there’s any great exploitation, if there’s any sort of surcharges that have significant effects on the cargo themselves, which ultimately gets absorbed by the … consumers. So that’s what we are looking for.”

Still unanswered: the source of the 10% GDP figure, the venue, the countries represented, any government response to the call for an independent maritime regulator, and what Colombo and Hambantota’s current capacity actually is in TEUs — the wrap-up gives the growth targets as percentages but no baseline.

Not reported

Daily Mirror and Hiru News filed on the conference a day after EconomyNext, answering several questions the original report left open — the chief guest, the senior attendees and the FMC chair’s participation. Others remain unanswered across all three accounts: none names the conference venue or the countries represented, none gives the source of the 10% potential figure, and none states what container capacity Colombo and Hambantota hold now or what the late-2027 targets are.

No outlet reports a government response to DiBella’s call for an independent maritime regulator, none says whether such an authority is under consideration, and none identifies which body currently performs the functions she described. Nor does any source give a date for the FMC’s offer of technical assistance or say what form it would take. Ada Derana was unreachable throughout this period behind a CloudFront block, so its coverage could not be checked.

Sources