The Shipping Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) has organized an Interactive Webinar on "Digitization - The New Normal in End to End Maritime Logistics" on Saturday, 19th & 26th September 2020 on Cisco Webex platform.

The objective of the webinar was to address and resolve the various issues of the stakeholders in areas like Shipping Lines, CHAs, CFSs/ICDs, Export Import, Port Operations, Customs Compliance, etc which arises mainly due to the digital transformation of shipping activities in the New Normal.

Capt S B Mazumder, Chairperson, Shipping Committee, BCC&I welcomed the Key speakers of the webinar which comprised of Shri P K Agrawal, IRS, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Kolkata and Shri A K Mehera, Dy Chairman, Haldia Dock Complex, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (SPMPT) {Erstwhile Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT)}, Haldia.

Apart from the above, there were important speakers present in the programme which comprised of Mr Adhendru Jain, Head of Delivery, India, Srilanka and Bangladesh, Maersk Line, Mr S Ramakrishnan, Past Chairman, Federation of Freight Forwarders Association of India (FFFAI), Mr Pramod Kumar Srivastava, Chief Executive Officer & Director, The PDP Group, Allied ICD Services Ltd, ICD Durgapur, West Bengal, Mr Mahesh Chandra Keyal, Partner, Mortex (India), Kolkata, Mr Vineet Malhotra, Co-Founder & Director, M/s Kale Logistics Solutions Pvt Ltd, Mumbai and Mr Debashis Dutta, Member, Shipping Committee, BCC&I who was the Moderator of the webinar.

The webinar was quite meaningful and the discussion held was very constructive as it highlighted various issues like Electronic Bill of Ladding (EBL), E-Forms; E-Certificate of Origins, E-Shipping Bills, Sea Cargo Manifesto and Trade Regulations (SCMTR), Tariff issues, Integration of Digital Infrastructure, Port Communication System (PCS), Digital Conversion of Billing Systems, Single Window Clearance, Cross Border Digitization, Clearing and Forwarding, Customs Procedure, etc. in areas like Shipping Lines, CHAs, CFSs/ICDs, Export Import, Port Operations, Customs Compliance, etc.

Apart, the Webinar focussed on areas like Paperless, Contactless and Faceless working environment, National Assesment Centre, Digitization of documents - Turant Seva Kendra of Customs, Swift - single face window interface for trade, ICES Advisory, Use of ICETAB for paperless examination which is mainly helpful for the port, Faceless Assessment, etc.

The two day programme was an eye-opener for the delegates as it brought forward the undisclosed issues which was categorically addressed and resolved to the extent possible during the webinar for the benefit of the maritime fraternity. Besides, the issues which could be addressed but could not be resolved, as a follow up of this webinar, those would be resolved to the extent possible with the help of the competent authority and the stakeholders.

The webinar was attended by over 300 delegates which comprised of port and customs officials, clearing and forwarding agents, shipping companies, cargo handling agents, port users, representatives from the trade, customs and freight brokers, logistics companies, transporters, etc.