Ports and Shipping Minister visits MSC to promote Colombo Port
The Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake paid a courtesy visit to the Head Office of Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A (MSC), based in Geneva, Switzerland.
MSC is the world’s secondlargest shipping line in terms of container vessel capacity, and the largest client at Port of Colombo where the majority of MSC vessels are calling at Jaya Container Terminal.
The Minister and Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman met MSC Group Executive Chairman Capt. G. Aponte and MSC President Diago Aponte.
Capt. Aponte thanked the Minister and Chairman for the high cooperation extended to ‘MSC Daniela’ the distressed ship, in order to extinguish the fire and salvage operations. He emphasized the fact that this incident was a good example to the world as to how Sri Lankan authorities promptly responded to the situation in order to avoid large scale environmental pollution. Capt. Aponte went on to say that when ships are in a similar distress situation, Ports around the world should act in a similar manner.
In response, the Minister thanked Capt. Aponte for the contribution and trust MSC had on the Port of Colombo. Further, he agreed to appeal to IMO to make a provision internationally to assist similar distress ships.