Page 6 - SAGT Sustainability Report 2022 2023

4 SOUTH ASIA GATEWAY TERMINALS (PVT) LTD
CEO’S
MESSAGE
Dear Stakeholder,
We are pleased to present the second
sustainability report published by SAGT,
demonstrating our commitment to drive and
instil responsible and sustainable business
practices in the Company.
For over two decades, SAGT has been at
the forefront of embracing new possibilities
and raising the bar for terminal operators
in the South Asian region. In publishing
our sustainability report for the second
consecutive year, SAGT continues to establish
our commitment to be an industry benchmark
not only in Sri Lanka but also the region.
The Financial Year (FY) 2020/21 was a year
like no other. As COVID-19 began to spread
rapidly across the world, modern life as we
knew it to be, almost came to a standstill.
Whilst, air traffic was suspended, many
land borders and road networks around the
world were shut to curtail the spread of the
pandemic. Shipping lanes, sea-trade routes
and ports however, remained open and
became an even more critical link to facilitate
the distribution of essential goods around the
world.
The Port of Colombo continued to deliver on
its promise of being the primary transhipment
hub port in the South Asian region. All terminal land. To further strengthen our commitment
operators in the Port of Colombo very quickly
redesigned and re-calibrated operations
from April 2020 onwards to ensure the port
offered uninterrupted services to its users
in support of the global efforts to manage
the pandemic. In this respect, the initial and
ongoing leadership provided by the Sri Lanka
Ports Authority to all operators in the Port
of Colombo, when many ports around the
world were faltering, is noteworthy and highly
commendable.
During the financial year in review too, SAGT
continued to achieve a throughput beyond
its original design capacity of 1.1million TEUs
(Twenty-foot Equivalent Units), handling an
annual throughout of 1.8 million TEUs. This
volume was however an 11% decline from
the previous year, mainly stemming from
the impacts of the global pandemic on our current and emerging issues and their impact
customers’ business and the Sri Lankan on the business, society, and environment.
economy.
Stakeholder engagement is an equally
In this backdrop of chaos and uncertainty important priority in furthering our
around the world, the manner in which Team sustainability agenda. With the prevailing
SAGT and our stakeholders rallied together pandemic creating a paradox, where people
to respond to this global emergency with were connecting more whilst maintaining
resilience, innovation and a natural willingness physical distance, SAGT stepped up to the
to care for colleagues whilst serving our
customers and contributing meaningfully to
help society respond and recover, is a matter
of immense pride, confidence and a testament
to the spirit of living our values.
SUSTAINABILITY AS A FULLY
INTEGRATED BUSINESS PRIORITY
Even as urgent priorities of the pandemic and
our business transformation have kept us
busy in recent months, sustainability remained
at the top of our agenda. Reinforcing our
commitment and support to the principles of
the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), we continued our efforts
to integrate sustainability within our wider
business strategy and objectives. During the
period of review, we especially focused our
efforts towards Goal 04 Quality Education,
Goal 05 Gender Equality, Goal 08 Decent work
and economic growth, Goal 13 Climate Action,
Goal 14 Life below water and Goal 15 Life on
and enhance results, we aspire to set elevated
internal targets for our key sustainability goals.
SAGT’s Sustainability Strategy, developed
in 2018 outlines four fundamental priorities
that are key in navigating us through our
journey towards achieving our vision of being
a sustainable, resilient, and trusted terminal
partner. These fundamental priorities are;
1. Environment Stewardship
2. Enabling work environment focusing on
well-being, Health &Safety and Security
3. Social Responsibility
4. Governance
Given the constantly evolving external
landscape, we regularly review and update
our Material Topics to take cognizance of both