Boat show at Wattala harbour aimed at promoting leisure and boating for tourists
For the first time the 3rd, 2-day Boat Show and Fisheries Exhibition was inaugurated last week at the Dikkowita Fishery Harbour, Wattala. A biannual event, the first exhibition was held in 2008 and the 2nd and 3rd exhibitions were held in 2010 and 2012,respectively.
Alongside the exhibition the meeting of the International Marina Group of the ICOMIA which was to promote marina development and the development of leisure boating tourism was held in Pegasus Hotel. Delegates of several countries participated in the meeting.
The main objective of holding this boat show at the Fishery Harbour is to promote leisure boating in Sri Lanka, while the other objectives were to attract buyers from other countries and to establish a forum between buyers and sellers to facilitate the growth of the boat building industry. It was organized by the Boat Building Technology Improvement Institute (BTI) in collaboration with the EDB.
Neil Fernando, Chairman, BTI said that this event would be a platform for local builders to display their capabilities to attract foreigninvestments and technology and add value to individual boat builders, industry and the nation as a whole.
He said that the exhibition was designed to provide a larger and diverse show for those foreign delegations visiting the exhibition and the Marina Conference from countries like India, Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, China, Netherlands, UK and USA.
Mr. Fernando, speaking to Business Times on the sidelines of the event, said that they have a range of different vessels for fisheries, pleasure and work and they are capable of manufacturing very high quality world standard vessels. “We are exporting these vessels the world over,” he said.
He said that they are equipped with machinery, infrastructure and expert workforce for the job, but unfortunately due to the prevailing circumstances they are running below capacity, and though the government says the business is for the private sector, not only the government is building boats, but the Navy also builds.
He said that all these manufacturing hurts their demand, especially the government requirements. He said “We have to now depend on the international market and the private sector”.
Bernard Gunatilleke, Chairman MMBL Leisure Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, on the sidelines of the event, told the Business Times that they have given the order to Neil Marine to build ‘House Boats’, where instead of occupying hotel rooms, the tourists would stay in these boats which would provide all the luxuries that they get in a tourist hotel.
He said that it is a great pity that government agencies are blocking or delaying in getting across these vessels. He said that they had to spend two years to get approval from various government agencies and now ultimately it is blocked at the Central Environmental Authority, and was expected to get the approval last week.
Their plan is to take the boat to a place called Awiththawa, 20 km away in the Beruwala river. He said that one boat of this type would cost Rs 30 million and they are expected put out three more boats within the next 12 to 18 months.