COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United States will spend $17 million to digitize operations at the Port of Colombo, the U.S. Embassy announced on Friday. The project is meant to reduce paperwork and delays at one of South Asia's busiest transshipment hubs.
The money will go toward two linked computer systems, a Maritime Single Window and a Port Community System, which will be developed with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. The systems are intended to let shipping lines, customs and immigration officials, terminal operators and businesses exchange information electronically. Much of that work is now done on paper or through separate systems that do not connect with one another.
The embassy said the port handles about $30 billion in cargo linked to the United States each year. Eric Meyer, who took up his post as American ambassador in August, said more than half a million containers of U.S. imports and exports pass through Colombo annually.
"When goods move faster and shipping costs come down, American companies are better positioned to compete and American consumers save money," Mr. Meyer said in a statement.
The announcement did not say which U.S. agency is providing the money or when the systems are expected to be running. The embassy said an implementing partner would be chosen through an open, competitive process, and American technology companies will be able to bid to supply hardware, software and technical expertise.
The funding was first discussed in September, when the chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, Laura DiBella, told Sri Lankan officials in Colombo that Washington had approved $15 million for the port's digital infrastructure. The embassy's statement did not explain the increase to $17 million.
Sri Lankan officials described the project as part of a wider effort to keep Colombo competitive as the port grows. Anura Karunathilaka, the minister of ports and civil aviation, said the country's future as a regional shipping center depended on modernizing how its ports operate as well as on building new capacity. Parakrama Dissanayake, who became chairman of the ports authority in February, said the systems would help connect the many agencies involved in port operations and make services more predictable for shipping lines.
Colombo handled a record 8.29 million 20-foot equivalent units of containers in 2025, according to the ports authority, and its volume rose nearly 12 percent in the first half of this year.
The port has drawn investment from countries competing for influence in the Indian Ocean. China Merchants Port Holdings, a Chinese state-owned company, runs the Colombo International Container Terminal and holds a 99-year lease on the port of Hambantota on Sri Lanka's southern coast. Next door to the Chinese-run terminal, India's Adani Group has built the Colombo West International Terminal with the Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings. The Adani-led venture had sought $553 million in financing from a U.S. government development lender but withdrew the request and paid for the project itself. The terminal recently doubled its annual capacity to 3.2 million container units.
The embassy said the digitization project would advance American economic and security interests by strengthening trade routes and creating business for U.S. technology firms. The United States is the largest market for Sri Lanka's garment industry, the country's biggest export sector.
