By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): One of the world’s largest shipping companies ‘Far Shipping’ has agreed to provide employment opportunities for Sri Lankan trained seafarers, Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.
He said this yesterday when a delegation from ‘Far Shipping’, including its Managing Director Yu Yong Jun, met the Minister at his office.
U Yong Jun said many Sri Lankan trained young sailors can be given job opportunities in his company located in China.
Therefore, he said there will be long discussions with the stakeholders involved in the naval sector of Sri Lanka regarding the recruitment methods.
Jun further said his company is willing to hire young people who have graduated from naval training institutes in Sri Lanka for on-the-job training and then hire them for permanent service.
Minister Silva said the Mahapola Maritime Company under the Sri Lanka Ports Authority as well as private sector institutions and the University of Moratuwa train quality teams in the maritime fields every year and if necessary they can be given a course that includes proficiency in the Chinese language.
Recalling that China has helped Sri Lanka as a friend since the past, the Minister expressed his gratitude as the Minister in charge of the Government of Sri Lanka for providing employment opportunities to the youth.
Sri Lanka tops the list of nations that may host a Chinese naval base in the coming years as Beijing seeks to expand its maritime capabilities, according to a new report. The South Asian nation’s Hambantota.
The South Asian nation’s Hambantota port is the most likely spot for a base given the US$2.19 billion China has already invested there, according to an assessment by the AidData research project.
The Hambantota commercial port in Sri Lanka has long been considered a prime candidate for a Chinese naval base.
Beijing gained control of the port in 2017, when a Chinese state-run company signed a 99-year lease with Colombo to run the facility – after Sri Lanka was unable to pay back the Chinese loans that built it.
“Naval cooperation was further cemented in 2018, when China gave a Type 053 frigate to the Sri Lankan Navy as a gift, rather than a foreign military sale,” AidData said.
Colombo’s port is consistently the highest-ranked South Asian port in Lloyd’s List of 100 container ports, even after the country’s 2022 crisis.
Regarding military access, Sri Lanka played a critical role in the tectonic shifts regarding Indian Ocean basing in the early decades of the Cold War.
After non-aligned politicians in Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) won elections in 1956, the new leadership called for the United Kingdom to vacate its naval and air bases in the country.
Colombo’s policy shift revealed how a smaller state’s political decisions can affect the calculus of large powers’ strategic ambitions.
