The first Colombo International Logistics Conference will be held on August 1 and 2 in Sri Lanka, focusing on promoting Sri Lanka as a new destination for international logistics and as a regional distribution centre beyond its shipping connectivity via its ports.

Organisers are working with the government and the private sector to bring in delegations to Sri Lanka to showcase the country along with a conference that will discuss the new trajectory and developments in logistics.

Visits to local free zones, storage and distribution centres, introducing local industry players and port visits to Colombo, Hambantota and Trincomalee along with the port city project are included in the schedule of events where around 400 local and international participants will attend. The Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Commerce Department have joined to promote the event along with other government stakeholders.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya will be the patron of the conference.

The Colombo International Logistics Conference 2019 is an initiative by CIMC Events which conducted Colombo International Maritime Conference (CIMC) in 2015 and 2016 and conducted two regional South Asia Maritime and Logistics Forums (SAMLFORUM) in Mumbai, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2017 and 2018. This is the first initiative to promote Sri Lanka’s logistics industry to the world by CIMC events.

Speaker Jayasuriya joined the private sector after serving the army and became a senior corporate executive, serving as Chairman, Managing Director and Executive Director of several companies and has also served in over 50 companies as a board director.

He was one-time Chairman of The National Chamber of Commerce, SAARC Chamber of Commerce, Colombo Rubber Traders’ Association, Sugar Importers’ Association and The Sri Lanka Business Development Centre and the Director of the Export Development Board. He was also the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the ‘EXPO 92’ Trade exhibition.