SLMD Brings Maritime Industry Under One Roof
The Sri Lanka Maritime Directory (SLMD) launched by SL Maritime Directory (Pvt.) Limited brings under one platform a range of activities associated to seas and oceans, including links to websites and addressing the different segments of the growing sector.
The Sri Lanka Maritime Directory, a long felt need, is an informative website, which contains comprehensive information and contact details of almost all the stakeholders who provide the services in the maritime and logistic sectors in Sri Lanka.
It offers a compact and comprehensive overview of all kinds of companies, suppliers and service providers including information about ship-owners, port operators, logistics providers, shipbuilders, marine contractors, marine and offshore equipment and supplies, professional services, as well as all other sectors related to the industry, both Government and private.
Going beyond, the Directory offers information on Sea Pollution, Maritime Law, History, Maritime Employment, Weather and event information about Hotels, Entertainment and any other service a visiting Sailor or a Stakeholder will need and many more subjects related to the Maritime Community.
Explaining the rationale behind the new effort, SL Maritime Directory (Pvt.) Limited Chairman W.S.Weeraman, who is also Ceylon Shipping Corporation Limited Chairman said that in spite of the importance of the maritime activities in the modern society, there is a limited perception about this sector in Sri Lanka.
This field is vital to trade, industry, energy, science, leisure, environment and defence, and offers excellent employment and career opportunities and will earn much needed foreign revenue to the country, of which we were in short supply recently, the main reason for the unprecedented economic crisis.
Sri Lanka can emerge as South Asia’s foremost maritime, logistics and distributions hub considering its geographical position, which is at the crossroads of the fastest-growing region of the world. The country’s proximity to many emerging markets has positioned itself favorably to be an important hub in the region and has the potential to emerge as a world-class logistics hub, and enter the global supply chain industry, which is rapidly digitalizing and creating a new generation of consumers. Also, Sri Lanka is served by all top 20 global shipping lines and major alliances.
Having realized this, we were convinced there is a dire necessity of listing a Maritime Directory. At present, services provided to the maritime sector have not been brought under one platform, which will be achieved by this Maritime Directory. It is designed and built up on a scientific base, which endeavours to provide all the information in the maritime sector in Sri Lanka on a single platform. It was identified that the information available for Sri Lankan maritime industry stake holders are confined to very conventional way of information system and as such Sri Lanka Maritime Directory has taken a major effort to reach the foreign service providers as well as locals to access all the information in a single platform. It is a result of an extensive research conducted by intellectuals related to the maritime field as well as other sectors. One of the objectives in this effort is to open avenues for local industries and investors to build up inter-relationship and also international relationship with their counterparts in the rest of the world as at present there is no such connectivity. To date Sri Lankan maritime industry could not maintain a proper access point for the world community to meet their merchant shipping requirements. To fill this vacuum, an effort is made to bring all those information at this place under user-friendly categorization by which those who need the information on services and products could reach without much difficulty. We hope that Sri Lanka Maritime Directory Web Portal will meet a long felt need by providing these newest ways of information-sharing system
