CILT holds road show at HIPG
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Sri Lanka held its first road show for the year 2019, at Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG) head office, recently.
CILT Sri Lanka Chairperson Gayani de Alwis CMILT, Council Members H.A. Premarathna FCILT, Dr. Priyangani Jayasundara CMILT, Chaminda Perera CMILT and CILT Secretary General Vasantha Dias attended the event.
The membership drive was organised at the request of Human Resources General Manager Jeevan Premasara and HIPG Commercial and Marketing Senior Manager Chandula Rambukwella coordinated the arrangements for the road show.
de Alwis in her welcome address explained the history of the CILT and mentioned that the CILT is the only chartered professional body in the country for professionals engaged in transport, logistics and supply chain and its main aim is to promote continuing professional education in the sector to uplift the skills and competencies of transport and logistics professionals in diverse backgrounds and create value to the economy.
de Alwis during her address further stressed that the CILT’S role is both passenger and goods transport in all modes of transport, land transport, maritime, aviation and emphasized that HIPG plays a vital role to ensure the efficient and reliable movement of goods and passengers. de Alwis invited all HIPG and HIPS professionals to come forward and work together with the CILT SL to develop the trade.
Perera explained about the membership criteria and the procedures to the participants.
Sixty five employees from HIPG took part in the road show to become CILT members. It was interesting to note young WILAT member, Shakkya Perera, who is currently working as a Procurement Executive at HIPG, sharing her experience with WILAT and how the exposure with the CILT and WILAT helped her in her career journey.
At the request of the CILT, HIPG also showed their keenness to set up the southern chapter for the CILT. It was a productive day for both the CILT and HIPG, which paved the way for a new beginning to work together on initiatives that are of mutual benefit. The CILT team also was taken on a tour around the Hambantota port and the team thanked HIPG for its great hospitality.
HIPG is a public-private partnership between the Government of Sri Lanka and China Merchants Port Holdings, a worldrenowned port operator with a significant presence in all aspects of the shipping industry. HIPG is the single largest port in Sri Lanka located 10 nautical miles from the global trade route. It is a subsidiary company of Hambantota International Port Services (HIPS), which is a joint venture between HIPG and the Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA).
The joint venture company is responsible for facilitating safety within the port. HIPG, HIPS and the SLPA work together to ensure the efficient and reliable movement of goods and passengers integrating environmental, social and economic sustainability initiatives into all areas of port operations.
HIPG invested in essential equipment for Port of Hambantota, which enhanced operational capabilities to another level by attracting internal cargo volumes via Hambantota. Further, implementation of new customer services levels, terminal operating systems (BTOS) and standard operating procedures are some of the reasons that enabled to double the RORO cargo volumes and handled 300 vessels in 2018.
HIPG was also able to increase RORO cargo volume by 159 percent compared to 2017. Apart from the core business as RORO, HIPG already commenced break bulk cargo operations extending the handling capacity of the port to another level.
Further, hot lay-ups also facilitated at berth for various reasons such as ship repairs along with many other different services required from Hambantota (Southern area) itself, which benefit the local community. HIPG is planning to commence bunkering operations during mid-year of 2019, which will result in further development of business operations at Port of Hambantota.
CILT is a leading global professional body associated with the logistics, transport and supply chain industry.