COLOMBO, Sept 19 (ePRESS) – Port City Colombo, Sri Lanka’s first multi-services Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and landmark public-private partnership, has opened its doors to academia, offering students insight into its scale, vision, and potential to create new opportunities at home.
“A nation’s true progress is not measured by skyscrapers, but by its people’s ability to envision and sustain the future,” said Xiong Hongfeng, Managing Director of CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd. “While our mandate is to bring world-class investment, we believe empowering Sri Lanka’s young talent is equally vital for building a knowledge-driven economy.”
Sri Lanka boasts a literacy rate of over 92 percent, one of the highest in South Asia. Each year, thousands of graduates earn global recognition for their skills, but more than half leave the country in search of opportunities abroad, highlighting the urgent challenge of brain drain.
To address this, Port City Colombo has partnered with leading universities. With the University of Moratuwa, it launched the Smart City Ideathon to develop urban solutions. With the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, it supported a joint symposium with Zhejiang Shuren University of China, co-authored a SCOPUS-indexed case study on its role as an investment hub, and collaborated on workshops for the 21st International Conference on Business Management (ICBM) 2025.
Port City Colombo has also welcomed students and faculty from the University of Colombo, University of Ruhuna, Sabaragamuwa University, South Eastern University, National Institute of Business Management (NIBM), and General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) for on-site briefings. These visits gave students a first-hand look at how the project is shaping Sri Lanka’s future.
By connecting academia with its development goals, Port City Colombo says it hopes to create opportunities for young Sri Lankans to lead from within the country, and not just abroad.
