This was stated by the Sri Lankan Minister for Justice, Rauff Hakeem.

He was talking to media in Colombo during the inaugural ceremony of the General Sales Agent (GSA) office of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in the Sri Lankan capital.

PIA has re-launched its flights from Karachi to Colombo after a gap of over three years.

The GSA office of PIA in Colombo was inaugurated by the Managing Director of the national carrier, Captain Nadeem Yousufzai.

Inaugural ceremony was also attended by Rauff Hakeem, who is also the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress.

He further stated that Hambantota is one of the largest development projects undertaken by the present Sri Lankan government.

Rauff Hakeem pointed out that Hambantota is important because it happens to be in the busiest shipping lane in the Indian Ocean and will handle some 246 vessels per day across part of Sri Lanka and will have necessary facilities for refuelling, bunkering purposes.

He was of the view that the real business Sri Lanka can attract is the transshipment of cargo.

Rauff Hakeem said that Sri Lanka is a small country and its industrial export is not a big segment of its segment of its cargo and has to depend on sizable chunk of transshipment cargo.

`For this we look forward to the Indian subcontinent- Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, with strong rail and road link and also some feeder vessels, Sri Lanka can become a regional hub of shipping', he remarked adding that this is the idea being the Hambantota port.

Rauff Hakeem opined that there is a potential for Hambantota to overtake Colombo is more because it is almost on the sealane.

He said that the offshore and inland facilities for the port are being carried out.

The Minister said that Sri Lanka and Pakistan enjoy deep friendly relations and that these are heading in the right direction and `perhaps this is a golden era of best relations between the two countries', he remarked.

He said that Pakistan has been one of the very sincere friends of Sri Lanka and that this has been illustrated many a times and extended assistance during the extreme challenges faced by Sri Lanka.

Rauff Hakeem said that Sri Lanka too has reciprocated its goodwill towards Pakistan.

He also referred to the recent visits of President Asif Ali Zardari and Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to Sri Lanka and this show the kind of importance Pakistan is giving to Sri Lanka.