CASA: Maritime Digitalisation a National Imperative 🚢

The Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) underscores that Sri Lanka’s strategic location must be supported by an integrated digital ecosystem to maintain global competitiveness against regional hubs. • Ecosystem Integration: Focus must shift from isolated digital solutions to industry-wide integration. Fragmented systems currently lead to parallel submissions, manual interventions, and increased transaction costs. • Port Community System (PCS): CASA calls for the fast-tracking of a Port Community System to enable real-time information exchange between shipping lines, agents, Customs, and port authorities. • Trade Facilitation Progress: • ASYHUB: Noted as a positive step by Sri Lanka Customs for electronic manifest submission, but its success depends on full integration with terminal operating systems to avoid manual reconciliation. • National Single Window: Strategic intent exists, but progress remains "uneven." CASA stresses the need for clear governance and enforceable timelines to achieve the "one submission" goal. • Resilience & Competition: Digitalisation is identified as a critical resilience mechanism to manage operational disruptions like adverse weather. With shipping lines having high network flexibility, Sri Lanka must reduce administrative delays to prevent cargo diversion to competitors. _Source: Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) Perspective, January 2026._