Mangala tells P’ment interests of thousands of exporters greater than those of 5 shipping agencies

In a swipe at anti-liberalisation sentiment within the shipping industry, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Saturday in Parliament questioned whether the interests of five agencies which control the Lankan shipping market outweighed those of thousands of exporters.

In his speech winding up the Third Reading of the 2018 Budget, which was passed in Parliament by a two-thirds majority on Saturday, Samaraweera revealed that at present “five Sri Lankan companies control the agencies of shipping lines that account for 74% of the global shipping market. 

These five companies have an average age of 115 years.”

He said, while these companies have opposed liberalisation of the sector, Sri Lanka’s apparel exporters JAAF and the Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association, the Tea Exporters Association of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Export Association have all hailed the move to liberalise the shipping industry since it enables more competitive pricing and better services to the entire export industry. 



“Do we want to undermine the interests of thousands of export companies and hundreds of thousands of their employees to serve the interests of a handful of entrenched shipping agency companies?” Samaraweera asked. 

“We need to encourage an environment of healthy competition that will drive innovation and service excellence and growth. We will ensure that such competition will be fair and balanced, eliminating unfair trade practices by enacting prudent regulation. This is why the proposal on shipping liberalisation is coupled with the proposal to implement an independent regulator for the industry,” he added.

The Finance Minister assured that he would discuss the modalities of the implementation of these proposals with Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, while taking note of his concerns.

In his speech Samaraweera also went on to state: “Any economic reform creates winners and losers. There will be many winners in our reform efforts, but through these adjustment measures we have ensured that there is a meaningful safety net to support those who fall behind.”