Colombo Dockyard fly’s the Sri Lankan Flag high at SMP World Expo 2012

Feb. 22, 2012 - PRLog -- Colombo Dockyard PLC the premier Shipbuilding & Ship repairing yard in Sri Lanka participated as the Bronze Partner at the Shipping, Marine & Ports World Expo 2012 (SMP World Expo 2012) a Maritime Conference & Technology Exposition at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai organized by the CHEMTECH Foundation between 8th to 11th February 2012 and showcased its products and services.

The event provided excellent business opportunities and a platform where the Shipyard met many representatives of the Government, maritime bodies and the shipping industry. The Conference covered areas such as shipbuilding technologies, infrastructure requirements, maritime safety & security issues and many more relevant topics, while the Exhibition was used to showcase the state of the art and innovative products, systems and processes in use. The live coverage provided by the TV and press media ensured wide media publicity to this event.

Mr. Mangala Yapa, MD / CEO Colombo Dockyard PLC addressed the SMP 2012 conference on the topic “Ship Repair Industry Challenges” on invitation made by the distinguished advisory panel. The conference was attended by key players from the international shipping fraternity.  

The inaugural opening ceremony on 8th February 2012 was held under the patronage of Shri K. Mohandas Secretary Ministry of Shipping and Hon Minister of Defence, Vice Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan COM, Ministry of Defence (Navy) was the Chief Guest for the proceedings held on 9th February 2012. High ranking Government officials and many Indian private sector and foreign delegations added prestige to the Event.

As both our nations have been enjoying cordial social, religious and trade relationships for well over twenty five centuries, and successive Indian administrations have especially hand picked Sri Lankan expertise for a range of tasks, including the services of Colombo Dockyard for many of its ship repairing and shipbuilding needs, Colombo Dockyard joining as a “partner” at the Exhibition and Conference came in to much praise by the Shipping fraternity in India.

As neighbouring countries, our two nations have complimented each other throughout the years, with “healthy competition’ that’s been beneficial to both countries. Since Sri Lanka is strategically located adjacent to the southern tip of the Indian sub continent, Colombo Dockyard has been able to cater to ship owners from both the east and west coasts with very minimal diversion cost/time.  

Similarly, the current development of the port facilities in Sri Lanka is intended to develop Sri Lanka to be the ‘trade gateway’ between India and the rest of the world, as Hong Kong is for China and Singapore is for Malaysia. With India emerging as a global powerhouse, we in Sri Lanka stands to benefit from India’s prosperity and ‘we at Colombo Dockyard are ready’ to serve the emerging needs of the Indian market.

The supportive policies of our respective governments such as the Indo–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (the first FTA signed by India) have given us the necessary impetus for the growth of bilateral trade. Further augmentation of these activities is expected through the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which is being favourably considered by the two governments.

Additionally, with many internationally reputed OEMs setting up their service centres in Colombo, we have been able to strengthen our “position” as the premier marine hub of Asia.

Demonstrating our approach of “synergy”, Nagasaki Semapaku Sobi (NSS) of Japan, GL Nobel Denton of Norway and Pership Group of Sri Lanka strategically joined Colombo Dockyard’s pavilion at this SMP World Expo 2012 to portray a glimpse of the unique offers at  disposal, when a Ship Owner/ Operator select ‘Colombo Dockyard’ to be the preferred Shipbuilder or Shiprepairer.

With our large base of Indian Customers who have chosen Colombo Dockyard over competitor organizations for their shiprepair and shipbuilding needs, we have maintained our dedication to producing good results, safe-guarding the trust and confidence placed by them in our capabilities. With the dawn of peace and political stability in Sri Lanka, we are now better geared and more than ready to offer Sri Lankan Excellence and Ingenuity coupled  with our strategic and synergistic alliances to all our future Customers.

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Colombo Dockyard PLC is the island's leading Ship repair, Shipbuilding and Heavy Engineering facility, conveniently located inside the very Port of Colombo operates 4 graving dry-docks with a maximum capacity of 125,000 Dwt.