India needs to strengthen its shipping ecosystem to reduce vulnerability in times of global crises and promote the country’s trade, Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal said on Thursday.
He said Indian flag vessels are very limited in number, and this leads to around $50 billion of trade deficit that we do have in the services sector solely due to maritime logistics.
Calling the situation “unsustainable” as it also makes India “vulnerable”, he said countries which have strong control over logistics systems fare better during global disruptions.
“We need to focus on how we have a minimum degree of control over the global logistics ecosystem, which is also necessary to support our international trade as we move towards the 2047 Viksit Bharat goal,” he said here at CII’s export logistics conclave.
The country, he said, has limited control over shipping and air cargo spaces.
Citing an example, Agrawal said during Covid times, shippings cost went up multiple times and it impacted India’s exports.
“Whenever there is an international crisis or there is a Red sea crisis, the first thing that suffer is a logistics cost…it goes up for our exporters,” he said, adding, “Whenever the world logistics suffers a constraint, the countries which have better control over logistics tend to gain more than the countries which have not much control over logistics.” In another example, he said if a container from India has to reach Africa, and for that, if it has to transit through Singapore or Dubai, it would lead to delays and add to the cost for exporters.