The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I) organized its first edition of the Annual Shipping Workshop on “Challenges in the Maritime and Logistics Industry” on Friday, 25th May 2018 at Williamson Magor Hall, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I), Kolkata. The workshop was organized with the help of senior representatives from the Government, Policymakers, Industry leaders, Researchers, etc.

The objective of this workshop was to provide realistic knowledge on the developments taking place in India in the Maritime & Logistics Sectors. Besides, the objective of the workshop was to focus on the “Safety of our Indian Coastlines” and to make the delegates aware of how the Indian Coastlines contribute to the Maritime trade of the country. Apart, the workshop was organized with an objective to focus on the Protection and Indemnity of the Shipowners and to make the delegates aware about the role of the Protection and Indemnity Club (P & I Club) which deals with the Protection and Indemnity of the Shipowners for further development and growth of the maritime trade of the country.

The speakers of the workshop were Mr K Swaminathan, Director (Service Business), BalmerLawrie& Co Ltd, Mr Nick Dimokidis, Senior Claims Executive, M/s Charles Taylor Mutual Management (Asia) Pte Limited, Managers of The Standard Club Asia Ltd, Singapore (P & I Club),Shri K K Aggarwal, IRSE, Joint Secretary – Sagarmala Project, Sagarmala Cell, Ministry of Shipping, Government of India and Mr Atul Joshi, Dy Inspector General, Indian Coast Guard, Eastern Region, Kolkata.

From BCC&I present were Mr B B Chatterjee,Sr Vice President, BCC&I,Capt S B Mazumder, Chairperson, Shipping Committee, BCC&I, Mr Tapas Banerjee, Co – Chairperson, Shipping Committee, BCC&I and other members of the Shipping Committee of BCC&I.

The workshop brought together senior government officials, port users, trade representatives, industry representatives, policy makers, researchers, academicians, etc and altogether, the total no of delegates present were 150, approximately.

The workshop was an eye-opener for those in the EXIM trade, the Ship owners/charterers, the Shipping lines/agents, the CHA’s, the Port users, the Freight forwarders, the logistics providers, etc as they had a clear understanding on the developments taking place as well as challenges faced in the Maritime and Logistics sectors. This was on both the role of the Indian Coast Guard, especially in the Maritime trade and also about the Protection and Indemnity of the Shipowners.

Overall, the workshop provided the Way forward on developments and investments in the Port Sector to enableincreases in the cargo handling capacity, which in turn would reduce Logistic Costs, especially for the Exim Trade.