The island's location, big port construction projects and plans to expand its hub role, makes it well-placed to emerge as a new maritime centre like Singapore and Dubai, said Noboru Ueda, chairman and president of ClassNK.
The Tokyo-based ship classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, better known as ClassNK, is the world's largest such organisation which maintains technical standards for building and operating ships, having surged past the 200 million gross tonne mark in May 2012.
A new shift in the maritime industry is taking place, from north to south, with Sri Lanka emerging as a maritime hub after the rise of Singapore and Dubai, creating a southern maritime zone, Ueda said.
"If Sri Lanka succeeds as a new maritime nation, then with Dubai and Singapore, we will have three new maritime stars in the region," Oeda told a ports and logistics conference in Colombo hosted by Sri Lanka Ports Authority and organized by Seatrade, an events company specializing in the maritime secto