- Focuses on maritime decarbonisation/digitalisation
The Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House, Bimal Rathnayake expressed Sri Lanka’s interest in entering into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Singapore on green, digital shipping corridor collaboration, focusing on decarbonisation and digitalisation in the maritime sector.
Rathnayake undertook an official visit to Singapore from 13 July to Tuesday (15) to attend the Global Aviation and Maritime Symposium and a series of high-level engagements. This visit underscored Sri Lanka’s commitment to strengthening partnerships in the aviation, maritime, and logistics sectors while advancing the country’s position as a regional transport and trade hub. He participated as a speaker at the Ministerial and Industry Roundtable on Monday (14), themed ‘Shaping Tomorrow’s Transport: People, Technology, and Policy.’
Rathnayake highlighted the need for closer collaboration between the aviation and maritime sectors to enhance resilience across global transport networks. He also stressed the importance of regional cooperation and joint crisis response mechanisms. He noted Sri Lanka’s unique position as a regional air-sea gateway and outlined national efforts to integrate transport, highways, ports, and aviation under one Ministry for the first time, in order to harness synergies and drive strategic infrastructure development.
He also addressed the panel discussion on ‘Strategies to Support Safe Aviation Growth’ at the opening of the Third Asia Pacific Summit for Aviation Safety where he emphasised that aviation safety remains one of the top national priorities in Sri Lanka, guided by a Master Plan aligned with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and supported by strong political leadership. He also underscored the integrated approach to managing land, sea, and air transport, with civil aviation playing a pivotal role in supporting tourism, trade, and global connectivity.
Rathnayake also held productive discussions with the Acting Minister for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Finance of Singapore Jeffrey Siow where he invited Singaporean companies to explore investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s logistics sector and requested capacity-building support for Sri Lankan officials.
He proposed that Sri Lanka be considered as a source country for the recruitment of bus drivers. Siow conveyed Singapore’s readiness to engage constructively on the proposed MoU and undertook to relay the investment and recruitment proposals to the relevant ministers.