DD India

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took part in the Global Maritime India Summit (GMIS) 2023, Mumbai today where she said that financing, insurance arbitration and the creation of more diverse options are required to boost the country’s shipbuilding capacity.

Sitharaman said that GMIS 2023 is important because it is being held at a time when globally there are a lot of challenges – in the security of supply, in disruption of supply, in value chains being broken. Shipments of major commodities are at risk sometimes, and food insecurity and energy insecurity all creep in because of this and add to inflation.

Speaking about the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “We are looking at reaching Europe, Central Asia through maritime plus land route, thus cutting out on logistics costs”.

Further, she informed that a “Marine Cargo Pool” was created with the support of IRDAI and domestic insurance companies’ insurers together with General Insurance Corporation of India Limited (GIC Re) in the aftermath of COVID-19 to support maritime trade.

She added that India has risen in the Global Ranking in the International Shipments category from 44th rank in 2014 to 22nd in 2023. She mentioned that the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index report 2023, the “Turn Around Time” of Indian ports is now 0.9 days, which is less than countries like Singapore (1 day), UAE (1.1 days), Germany (1.3 days), USA (1.5 days), Australia (1.7 days), Russia (1.8 days) and South Africa (2.8 days).