CILT holds L. S. De Silva memorial lecture “Transport and Logistics”

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Sri Lanka organisedt he L.S. De Silva Memorial Lecture on 8 November at 5:30 p.m. at the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo7. 

The lecture was titled‘Transport & Logistics: The need for Public-Private-Partnership Framework and Cooperation’ and was delivered by Thilan Wijesinghe, Chairman of the National Agency for Public Private Partnerships, attached to the Ministry of Finance.

Welcoming the gatheringCILT Sri Lanka Chairperson Gayani de Alwis mentioned how late Eng. L. S. De Silva started the linkage with then CIT in UK as a corresponding member and later as the Founding Chairman of CILTSri Lanka in 1984 and appreciated his yeoman service rendered to CILT. CILT Sri Lanka Secretary Dr. Lalith Edirisinghe spoke about late Eng. L. S. De Silva’s contribution to CILT. 

Prior to the commencement of the memorial lecture, the family members of the late Eng.De Silva garlanded his photo. The talk was followed by a moderated Q&A session. Judging by the questions raised by the participants, it showed that the speaker has really opened up their thinking on this topic. CILT Sri Lanka Council Member Ibrahim Saleem moderated the Q&A session.

Wijesinghe’s presentation was full of insightful information and empirical evidence to support the subject topic. He stated that while UNCTAD rate Sri Lanka as the 15th best connected in the world for port-related activities, we seem to have a comparatively uncompetitive and inefficient logistics environment, as can be seen from the Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI) ranking comparison.

Sri Lanka also appears to have much to be desired in its Ease of Doing Business indicators:Overall Ease of Doing Business, Sri Lanka ranks 110, ahead of South Asia, but is well behind East Asia,UAE and Mauritius; Sri Lanka ranked 158th out of 181 under Paying Taxes and had 47 types of taxes compared to nine in China and Malaysia; Sri Lanka ranks poorly at 163 (behind Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan) on time taken to enforce a contract through courts (over 1,200 days); Sri Lanka’s Fiscal Balance position ranks at the 143rd position out of 193 countries

Wijesinghe defined PPP as a special contractual arrangement between a public sector ministry, corporation or authority and a private company for providing a public infrastructure asset or service, in which there is an appropriate transfer of risk to the private party and where the private party bears investment and management responsibility on a long-term basis.

In a PPP, the private partner is typically tasked with the design, construction, financing, operation and management of a capital asset to deliver a service to the government or directly to private end users. The private partner will receive either a stream of payments from the government or through charges levied directly on the private end users, or both, for its efforts in undertaking the investment and risks associated with such investment.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) is a leading global professional body associated with the logistics and transport industry. The institute holds unparalleled international recognition and works towards achieving its objectives of promoting and encouraging the art and science of logistics and transport through its membership and its educational qualifications. 

With a global membership of over 34,000 from 35 countries across the globe, CILT provides a professional identity to those in the ever expanding logistics and transport sector. It is astrong, active and a unified professional association that is able to speak with authority on strategic issues affecting businesses and people in the industry and support their careers.