{"id":106763,"date":"2020-09-18T16:39:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T23:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106763"},"modified":"2020-09-18T16:39:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T23:39:47","slug":"welcome-the-presidents-move-to-develop-sri-lanka-as-the-maritime-hub-of-the-indain-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/18\/welcome-the-presidents-move-to-develop-sri-lanka-as-the-maritime-hub-of-the-indain-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome the Presidents move to develop Sri Lanka as the maritime hub of the Indain Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The maritime and Air hub of Asia in the 21st\u00a0 century<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The above map\nshows the relative location of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean in relation to\nfour continents and four Oceans Atlantic, Indian Pacific and Antarctic Oceans.\nThis also shows the maritime and Air links of all these four continents with\nSri Lanka. The validity of the President\u2019s plan has to be viewed in this\nbroader perspective. You will also notice the unique geographical location Sri\nLanka enjoys in its centrality in relation to four continents and the wide\nexpansion of four oceanic territory extending from, Africa in the West to Australia\nin the East and the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the North to Antarctic\nin the South pole across the Indian Ocean which no other country in the world is\nblessed with. Its unique location right at the center of the Great East- West\noceanic trade route that carries the biggest volume of freight to and fro the\n21st<\/sup> century Indo Pacific pivot of economic and political power\nitself has bestowed a rare fortune unbelievable for any country in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides making\nit the South Asia\u2019s foremost maritime logistic and distribution hub located at\nthe cross roads of fastest growing region in the world in proximity to many\nemerging markets in the world it is in this backdrop development planners and\npoliticians have to assess the future development potentialities of this\ncountry. Already it is said that Sri Lanka is served by all the top 20 global\nshipping lines and Colombo is already ranking no 23 among the top 30 container\nports in the world.  Its locational\nadvantage in terms of sea and Air connectivity with all these countries and its\nunlimited potentials for development in terms of comparative advantages are even\nover Dubai and Singapore is a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island is\nalso blessed with physical facilities for first class harbours right round its\nmaritime belt. Already we have six such developed ports Colombo, Galle,\nHambantota, Oluwil, Ttrincommallee and Kankasasnature and six Airports vize\nKatunayaka.Ratmalana, Mattala, Trinco and KKS. \nWhat is required is to develop these ports and harbours to their maximum\ncapacities with all modern technologies and service facilities perhaps with first\nclass land connectivity between Colombo Trinco and KKS, as we already have the\nColombo Hambantota link is a first class national master development plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beside\ndeveloping Sri Lanka as the maritime and Air hub in the Indian Ocean I also\nwould like to draw the attention of the government in other areas alike Ship\nBuilding Ship Repairing, and Fishing industry making use of the vast expanse of\noceanic territory that has the potential to claim the biggest fishing nation in\nthe world. The availability of skilled technical, managerial and work force\nwill definitely be a boost to these industries. The only missing link is\nvisionary and patriotic political leadership for the past 72 years. The 69.5\nmillion who elected Gothabhaya as their President expect him to fill this long\nfelt vacuum. His above declaration therefore I hope will be a good omen in this\ndirection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Indian Purana<\/em> rishis said \u2018Bhuu madyaye Lankiyatiti Lanka\u2019 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point it\nmay be recalled that even in prehistoric times this Island was regarded as a\nworld  hub For example.The Indian Purana\nrishis<\/em> perceived it as lying at the\ncentre of the world when they said \u2018Bhuu\nmadyaye lankiiyatiti Lanka<\/em>\u201d. They wrote, it is called Lanka as it is\nlocated right at the centre of the earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the\nearly historic times this Island had always been the Asia\u2019s cynosure and meeting\nplace and trade hub between the East and the West. Traders and travellers both\nfrom the West Rome, Greece and the Arab world and China in the Far East have\npassed through this Island as a transshipment point and a trading hub. It had\nbeen famous for its gems, spices and elephants and it had been a bee hive of\ninternational trade, in the Indian Ocean. Moreover Sri Lanka also had\nestablished diplomatic ties both with the West and the East at very high levels.\nFor example Diplomatic contact between the Emperor Claudius and a King of Sri\nLanka in AD 52 is recorded. It is said that the Sri Lankan Kings Ambassador sat\nnext to Claudius on his right when the British captive King was paraded before\nEmperor as a war captive.  That was the\nname and the fame this country enjoyed at such ancient times. This shows the\nrecognition Sri Lanka had got in the ancient world.  This also shows how nature had already decreed\nSri Lanka as the maritime trade hub in the Indian Ocean long before we began to\nrealize about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish  in ten years\u2019 time once again Sri Lanka will\nemerge as the modern miracle of Asia under the direction of President Gotabhaya\nRajapaksa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara The maritime and Air hub of Asia in the 21st\u00a0 century The above map shows the relative location of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean in relation to four continents and four Oceans Atlantic, Indian Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. This also shows the maritime and Air links of all these four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sudath-gunasekara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}