Commerce Minister admits slow rise in “Starting Business” parameter of EoDB ranking, expects to improve going forward October 30 , 2019

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has critically acknowledged India’s position in the Ease of Doing Business by pointing out a slow rise in the parameter– ‘Starting Business’, while the country’s overall rank improved by 14 spots to rank 63. She highlighted that the parameter of starting a business is very critical and India has improved only one rank in this. Nirmala Sitharaman also said that Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, NCLT, and NCLAT have together made India to substantially improve its rank in the World Bank’s Doing Business report. 

The FM announced that Kolkata and Bangalore will be added next year for Ease of Doing Business review. At present, only Delhi and Mumbai are considered by the World Bank.

 

The World Bank has praised the Country for making a substantial leap upward, raising its Ease of Doing Business ranking from 130 in Doing Business 2016.  This is the third time in a row when India made its place in the 

10 top improvers. Improvement in India’s rank can be attributed to the remarkable reform effort by the Government. The World Bank has mentioned four key areas where India has made significant improvements —  starting a business, dealing with construction permits in India, trading across borders, and resolving insolvency.

Maersk lays the foundation stone for ‘A.P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence’ for maritime skill development in Tamil Nadu

MUMBAI: Maersk, a Global integrator of Container Logistics, has laid the foundation stone of its planned ‘A.P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence’ facility at Thenpattinam (Tamil Nadu), to support skill development and training needs for Maersk cadets across job functions (deck, electrical and engine). Maersk signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET) University to jointly operate this facility with an aim to maintain steady channel of Indian seafarers for its operations. 

The A. P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence will be spread over 8 acres of land (32,375 sq. mt.) and will be a part of a larger 12 acre (48,500 sq. mt.) maritime campus set up by AMET. The centre will be equipped with world class facilities’ like smart classrooms, workshops, and will house approximately 160 deck & engine cadets for Bachelor’s programme in Nautical Science & Marine Engineering. Additionally, electrical cadets will be taken in as per requirement on yearly basis. 

 

 “Currently, Maersk does not have any exclusive training facility in India for its cadets. We are relying on multiple colleges for training them. The A. P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence will help us focus our skill development efforts on a single location, especially in a Country like India from where we have the highest recruitment of cadets in the world. We hope to inspire our cadets to explore horizons beyond their own by synergizing AMET’s 25+ years’ experience in maritime education and our vision to train our cadets in a world class training facility building enhanced collaboration between company and Academia.” said Niels Bruus, Head of Marine Human Recourses at Maersk.

 

Dr. J. Ramachandran, Chancellor of the AMET University said “We have worked closely and cohesively with the global shipping industry and especially Maersk aligning its objectives regularly to suit the demands of the evolving maritime industry in India for almost two decades now. Forged with a mission to be the fountainhead for nurturing finest intellectual capital base for the worldwide maritime sector, education at AMET caters to the comprehensive development of all its students so as to make them better educated, more articulate and demanding. We are glad to be partnering with Maersk to set up the centre of excellence with which we will raise the bar in maritime education.”

 

Maersk and AMET are aiming to bring opportunities for aspiring seafarers to be trained in world class facilities enabled by modern teaching aids, well equipped workshops for practical training, marine workshop for hands-on training on marine auxiliaries, ship-in-campus and other such facilities backed by an overall conducive learning environment at this centre.

 

“We want to add more value to the training standards during school phase of our cadets. There is a gap between theoretical syllabus and important competency needs on our modern container vessels. This is the gap that we are looking forward to plugging at our centre” Niels Bruus added.

APM Terminals Pipavav announces financial performance of September ended quarter 2019

MUMBAI: APM Terminals Pipavav (Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd) recently announced the financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2019. 

 

The company reported a net profit of INR 671 million for Q2FY20 as against INR 552 million in Q2FY19. 

 

Revenue from operations for the quarter under consideration stood at INR 1,992 million as against INR 1,711 million in Q2FY19. EBIDTA for the quarter was at INR 1,267 million as against INR 975 million during the same quarter last year. EBIDTA margin stood at 64% in Q2FY20 as against 57% in Q2FY19. 

 

The container cargo business for the quarter stood at appx. 224K TEUs, Bulk business was at 674K MT and Liquid business was at appx. 235K MT, RoRo business handled appx. 20K cars for the quarter under review. 

The Board Members during their meeting held recently, announced appointment of Mr. Jakob Friis Sorensen as the Managing Director of APM Terminals Pipavav effective from 1st January, 2020.

MANSA congratulates PSA’s Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal for handling its one-millionth TEU

MUMBAI: Maritime Association of Nationwide Shipping Agencies – India (MANSA) has joined the maritime fraternity in congratulating PSA’s Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT) at JNPT in handling its one millionth TEU.

 

 “It goes to the credit of the BMCT to achieve this milestone in a span of just 20 months since it commenced operations in February last year. 

We wish that the next milestone will continue to come up much faster than expected and our ship-agent members will also play their small but significant role in taking the terminal to great heights,” said Captain Amit Wason, President, MANSA.

 

Rising trade and cargo movement augurs well for container terminals and our fellow intermediary ship-agents as also the Indian economy at large, he said.

 

Located at India’s largest and premier container gateway – BMCT is the fourth container terminal at the port with a quay length of 1000 meters in its phase-1 development and to be extended to 2000 meters berth length on completing expansion.

Commerce Ministry holds discussions with Export Promotion Council : MEIS, Credit, IGST refund issues discussed

NEW DELHI: Exporters raised several issues such as credit and IGST refund at a meeting called by the Commerce Ministry recently amid dip in the Country's outbound shipments. Exports contracted for the consecutive second month in September.

The meeting was Chaired 

by Commerce Secretary 

Anup Wadhawan and was attended by Export Promotion Councils.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said they flagged issues related to stoppage of filing of MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme), problems being faced by exporters at credit front and list of risky exporters.

"These issues are impacting exports. We urged the Government to take action on this," FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said.

Trade Promotion Council of India Chairman Mohit Singla, who participated in the meeting, said India's export needs strategic thrust to come out of the plateaued growth.

"We suggested harnessing GI (geographical indication) products globally for enhanced acceptability across geographies, a national trade portal to address the trade enquiries generated globally and incentivising on the degree of value addition a player in SEZ (special economic zone) brings to a product, so that they remain advantageous compared to foreign exporter," he said.

 

India's exports remained in the negative zone for the second consecutive month in September, contracting by 6.57 per cent to USD 26 billion mainly on account of significant dip in shipments of petroleum, engineering, gems and jewellery and leather products.

 

Imports also declined by 13.85 per cent to USD 36.89 billion in September, narrowing the trade deficit to a seven-month low of USD 10.86 billion, according to the government data. Out of the 30 key sectors, as many as 22 segments showed negative growth in exports in September. The country's outbound shipments have remained subdued so far this year. It may have a bearing on the overall economic growth, which fell to over six-year low of 5 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year.

 

Industrial output declined by 1.1 per cent in August due to poor performance by manufacturing, power generation and mining sectors.

 

Ludhiana-based Exporter S C Ralhan has called for immediate release of foreign trade policy by the Government to arrest the downfall.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate 150th year celebrations of KoPT

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the sesquicentenary celebrations of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), Mr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Shipping (Independent Charge) and Chemicals & Fertilisers, said in Kolkata recently.

 

During his visit to KoPT, the Minister inspected the CCTV control room in the dock area and port operations at Netaji Subhas Dock (NSD). He also inaugurated four important projects.

 

“The Minister inaugurated RFID operations at Kolkata Dock System (KDS) that was set up at a total cost of Rs 17 crore. Under this project, 12 gates of NSD and Kidderpore Dock (KPD) are being fitted with RFID-based PSES System. It will provide single window system to port users for obtaining permits/passes through cashless transactions. He also inaugurated CCTV operations at KDS, including at the KPD and NSD Gates and yards, Bascule Bridge, Swing Bridge and entire Rabindra Setu. Installation and commissioning of this project with four years’ annual maintenance contract has cost neatly Rs 3 crore,” a senior KoPT official said.

 

The Minister also unveiled three truck parking terminals at KDS on nearly 30,000 sq m of its own land at Sonai, Coal Dock Road and Bhut Ghat. This has cost nearly Rs 6 crore. Mr. Mandaviya also inspected the Green Wall Project at BISN extension of NSD. He visited the Indenture Memorial and probable river front development sites.

 

In the afternoon, the Minister headed a review meeting at the KoPT headquarters, during which Chairman Vinit Kumar briefed him about the performance of the Port Authority, various developmental projects being undertaken or to be handled in the near future.

The Minister emphasised that the work culture in the port sector needs to be changed to turn State-run ports more efficient. He also asked the management to encourage efficient employees. Mr. Mandaviya also gave away prizes to meritorious wards of port employees and met port users to discuss various issues.