Piyush Goyal: Ports, Shipping & Logistics are Key to India's Economic Growth
Union Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted the crucial role of ports, shipping, and logistics in driving India's economy. He compared trade to flowing rivers and emphasized how the shipping sector connects global opportunities with India.
Shri Goyal stated that ship building opportunities in the country are high and the Government is looking at ways to promote the sector. He urged the industry to suggest ways to make flagging of vessels in India attractive. “India has the advantage to allow cabotage of vessels and promote imports coming in Indian flagged vessels permitted within the WTO rules, but does not have enough flagged vessels to take advantage of the regulations”, he noted. The Minister urged the participants to suggest ways at the State and Central level to help companies come in flagged vessels in India.
Shri Goyal further stated that India has doubled its port capacity in the last decade and has significantly brought down the turnaround time of ships. However insisted that work remains towards strengthening the logistics ecosystem.
95% of India’s trade volume goes through ports and the 7,500 km coastline acts as a major enabler for the trade, he pointed out, asserting the immense potential the sector has to grow over the next few years. He also stressed the need for the logistics system to be more conducive to handle the current traffic at ports. “Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) has been introduced to aid logistics, but more ideas are needed to provide the whole ecosystem-linked logistics at ports”, he said.
