Saturday Sep 12, 2026
Saturday Sep 12, 2026
Saturday, 12 September 2026 00:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake outlined five priorities he believes should shape the logistics industry’s future agenda.
Addressing the 9th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Association of NVOCC Agents (SLANA) on Thursday, he urged the freight forwarders to build resilience, digitise, and get ahead of sustainability and policy demands before they become unavoidable.
The five-point recommendations of Dissanayake include; resilience, digitalisation, sustainability, human capital development and policy advocacy.
“The future will not belong to the biggest player. Neither will it belong to the cheapest. It will belong to those who can anticipate change,” he said.
He stressed that the industry’s future competitiveness would depend increasingly on its ability to anticipate disruptions, adapt quickly and execute against clear timelines, rather than relying solely on scale or cost advantages.
He stressed the importance of building resilience into supply chains amid geopolitical tensions and disruptions to global trade routes.
Dissanayake cited the example of Sri Lanka’s tea industry, noting that it withstood the disruption caused by the closure of Strait of Hormuz by successfully rerouting exports through an alternative path, as a model for building redundancy into supply chains.
Digitalisation was another key priority, with the Chairman calling for the modernisation of trade documentation and data systems to reduce the sector’s reliance on paper-based processes and improve efficiency.
He also highlighted sustainability as an emerging imperative, warning that carbon footprint reporting could soon become a standard requirement for cargo shipments. “The industry should prepare for such requirements rather than wait until they become mandatory,” he stressed.
On human capital, Dissanayake asserted the need for sustained investment in training and development, stating; “People are the factor that could either make or break an organisation.”
He also urged the industry stakeholders to adopt a more proactive approach to policy advocacy by engaging directly and consistently with the Government rather than reacting to policy decisions after they have been made.
