The Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG) has moved into top gear to accelerate the progress of its industrial park, combining its latest concept ‘HIPG Speed’ into the port’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
HIP with its partner Shenzhen Xinji Group with whom it recently signed an agreement will introduce the ‘plug and play’ concept soon and ‘HIPG Speed’ will play a vital part in its progress.
Xinji Group Chairman Yang Lin said: “Our modern standardised factory set up will be ready to roll out the production of home appliances within a span of 12 months. The concept is to act as an incubator to support more enterprises, who will have a simplified entry into the Hambantota Industrial Park.”
With a view to fast tracking the project’s progress, Port Investment Services has extended investor support services in tandem with the relevant Government departments to better facilitate Xinji. They extended support in the areas of completing the project application and related registration work, preferential policies, etc., for Xinji which is unable to be in Sri Lanka because of the global health risk. “This approach on our ‘ease of doing business’ at HIPG can assist any project investment to push through during a pandemic or normal times.”
“HIPG Speed is a concept which ensures that we facilitate our customers with optimum support, clearing the path for them to start operations, which includes cutting through red tape, construction bottlenecks, logistics support, on-site explorations, equipment preparation, training, etc. In the case of the Xinji project, we took only 20 days from completion of the project signing to commence the site construction,” said HIPG Senior General Manager – Port Investment Services, Legal and Corporate Affairs Tim Xiao.
Once complete, the Xinji ‘Electronic Processing Park’ will be the platform for them to independently carry out production and trading of household appliances. Through its construction, leasing and operation of standardised workshops, it will provide ‘one-stop service’ facilities for upstream and downstream supporting enterprises in the park, while continuing to strengthen their cooperation with HIPG in multiple business verticals.
“We are on the verge of entering a new stage in port development through our industrial park located within the perimeters of HIP. Whilst our port operation on the water’s edge is rapidly moving towards completion, which will soon make HIP a multi-purpose port, we are now creating a streamlined industrial park that will complement our sophisticated port operations. This will open doors of opportunity for Sri Lanka, firstly, across South Asia and then to the world at large,” said HIPG CEO Johnson Liu.
(FT)