Cargo Breaking News
Emphasising on working towards an atmanirbhar logistics vertical, Anamika Sinha, Chairperson, SCLA, says, “The EXIM interest of private sector and their respective futuristic disposition along with logistics streamlining will surely help achieve the bigger picture down to the level-zero in complete sync with the state and government agenda. In view of same, the Project NorthEast (NE) has been an endeavoured at SCLA and is progressive since last couple of months.”
Jaideep Raha, President – NorthEast, SCLA and Webinar Session Moderator, emphasised the potential for new business opportunities in the NE which can boost the GDP growth and presented a detailed, insightful presentation on the resources and development in NER. He made a insisting and assuring request to the concerned ministries to provide for the necessary infrastructure and the logistics team united under SCLA would come forward to ensure successful implementation and would be pleased to contribute to NER business growth.
The Guest of Honour for the event were H K Sharma, IAS, Secretary, Dept of Industries Government of Sikkim, Hage Tari, IAS, Secretary, Industrial Trade & Communication Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of AR, K K Dwivedi, IAS, Secretary Industries, Government of Assam, N. Sivasailam, IAS, Immediate Past Spl Secretary Logistics, Patron, SCLA, Vandana Agarwal, IES, Sr. Economic Advisor, MoCA, Shashi Bhushan Shukla, IRS Member Traffic & Logistics, IWAI, Kabir Ahmed, President, BAFFA, Aparajita Banerjee, Advisory Board Member (EAST and NE India) ANZ India Business Chamber; all the eminent speakers of respective region talked about their region initiatives and new business opportunities.
Dwivedi shared the initiatives by the government on building trilateral highways connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand and trade movement through waterways via Brahmaputra River from India to Chattogram and Monglapur Port in Bangladesh. He says, “This will ease the movement of small vessels/barge in NorthEast.” He also emphasised Guwahati to be as international airport to facilitate international connectivity between NorthEast states and across borders under Udaan International Scheme.
Sharma talked about various opportunities of tourism, IT, handlooms & handicrafts, horticulture & agro produce and its dependency on road connectivity, airport connectivity. The airport connectivity will ease both cargo passenger movements.
Taki also emphasised on the development of MSME in the field of organic produce and pharmaceuticals etc.
Ahmed threw light on connectivity between SAARC countries through waterways & roadways and also Bangladesh initiatives taken in this direction. He also touched upon trade balance between India and Bangladesh and less dependency on third country.
Appreciating the optimism of Ahmed’s view point on trade growth between both the countries by 3-4 billion dollars with emphasis on cargo movement through various channels, Agarwal focuses on cargo packaging and other requirements to withstand the transit and minimisation of wastage of cargo and ensuring value realisation. She said, “To maintain the quality standard, manpower skill training is required.” Agarwal encouraged the logistics industry to come forward and get connected with the government for more partnerships.
Sivasailam emphasised initiatives not on theoretical side but taking economic reality into consideration and working on strategies to promote businesses. “With these businesses we hope to build partnerships and that is how the Institution of SCLA along with mainstream organisations and chambers working in association to promote businesses in which they are strong. Seeing the opportunity of Agartala airport expansion, Pangong road movement for Bangladesh trade and India logistics and business partnership must be established for the interest of both the nations,” he adds.
Banerjee focuses on promoting Indo-Australian trade i.e., enhancing bilateral ties between Australia and India by stating the establishment of Australian council general in Kolkata with focus on NE region and eastern India.
Many eminent speakers from the logistics Industry and private sector were also present namely K.G. Thomas, CEO, Oscar Freight, Rajesh Singh, Senior GM Cargo & Door-to-Door Operations, SpiceJet, Capt. I. K. Khanna, Vice President for Aviation & Operations, Blue Dart, Keku Gazder, CEO , AAI Cargo Logistics & Services expressed their business related to the NE region.
SCLA organised an international conference on September 19, 2020 in association with ASSOCHAM titled NorthEast – New Business Opportunities and Logistics Achievability to focus on new business opportunities in the region by which we can achieve better logistics connectivity among NorthEast state & rest of the country and among NorthEast states and surrounding countries.
