After having consulted the maritime services sector, Sri Lanka put on the negotiation table of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India those services not available in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Association of Clearing and Forwarding Agents, Sri Lanka Freight Forwarding Association, Colombo Dock Yard, Ceylon Association of Ship Agents, Ceylon Shipping Corporation Limited, Merchant Shipping, South Asia Gateway Terminals and McClarens Holdings Limited had participated in stakeholder meetings with the Sri Lankan negotiation committee headed by the Department of Economics. According to their recommendations Sri Lanka had only negotiated with India to provide maritime passenger transportation services and freight forwarding services with a 40 percent equity investment. As far as the movement of people from India is concerned, only naval architects, skilled welders and fitters, project/ship managers, repair engineers, automation engineers and technicians will be granted access to work in Sri Lanka subject to conditions laid down by Sri Lanka. "The movement of people is tied up with the investment that is made by India, so there will be clear limitations imposed by Sri Lanka," Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies, told the Island Financial Review. According to Dr Kelegama Sri Lanka has the option of negotiating terms which would allow a specific number of personnel, for specific durations to specific areas. The Chairman of Colombo Shipping Kiran Atapattu said that Sri Lanka declined an offer to setup a ship repair facility in Doha and Lebanon because of a shortage of competent staff. "I have the investments…however I am not in a position to pursue these proposals since there is no competent staff to recruit for the project," he said as reported by a daily. During the stakeholder meetings the industry expressed their opinion that the need to liberalize movement of shore personnel from India was unnecessary as Sri Lanka had plenty of qualified personnel. They said that shipbuilding and ship repair service sectors found it difficult to find qualified naval architects, skilled certified welders and fitters as Sri Lanka does not produce these professionals. Due to many restrictions, it was difficult to get them from abroad and easing such restrictions would boost the industry, the industry representatives had said. The country also faces a shortage of navigating officers and marine engineers and the industry had requested for an agreement for the mutual recognition of certificates so that professionals from India could be sought to fill these vacancies. Cargo handling services had been dropped from the negotiations as the industry felt it would go against the best interests of Sri Lanka and the Department of Commerce had accordingly left it out. The Island Financial Review is in possession of documents to show that the maritime industry had been widely consulted and Sri Lanka’s offer list only contains those services not available in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile India indicated that it will open its Maritime services sector to Sri Lanka in maritime agency services, freight forwarding and maintenance and repair of sea vessels. Operations have to be carried out according to regulations of the particular state in India for which prior registration would be required, or according to laws laid down by India’s central government. The principle place of business must be in India. The movement of labour will be governed by the terms and conditions as laid out by India’s offer list in CEPA. Maritime cargo handling, storage and warehousing, Customs and clearing, container and station and depot services and ship brokering are the other services that will be opened to Sri Lanka, on similar conditions as mentioned above. Maritime transport in liner and bulk shipping services will also be opened where 40 percent of the cargo must be reserved for Indian flag vessels with the first right of refusal for government cargo. Here again the principle place of business must be in India. |
