HT Bureau
MUMBAI, Oct 19: India has been able to anchor investments worth Rs 10 lakh crore in the Global Maritime India Summit (GMIS), 2023, one of the largest maritime summits in the world that concluded in Mumbai on Thursday.
With this huge feat, the third edition of the GMIS made a significant stride towards achievement of ‘Amrit Kaal Vision 2047’ of Rs 80 trillion investment – a vision document shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development of maritime sector by 2047.
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Union minister of ports, shipping and waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal along with unveiled the ‘GMIS 2023 Mumbai Declaration’ on the occasion.
Sarbananda Sonowal said, “The GMIT, 2023 has made a wonderful beginning by securing an investment commitment of more than Rs10 lakh crores towards achieving the vision of our visionary Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji as envisioned in the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision, 2047.The vision document launched by Modi ji charts a roadmap for the development of India’s maritime sector with a time bound implementation plan on multiple areas. With the record number of MoUs signed among the stakeholders, the summit has unrolled the trajectory for India to become a global maritime hub.”
“We would like to extend our gratitude to the 10 ministers from partner countries, more than 50 partner countries, all stakeholders and delegates who established a connection during this summit to collaborate on identified areas for cooperation and create future proof solutions. With your active support towards the success of this summit, we believe that GMIS has achieved its objective that offered a platform to boost regional cooperation, collaboration among maritime nations, across dimensions,” he said.
Union finance minister Nirmal Sitharaman, Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, Union education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendrabhai Patel, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shripad Naik and Union minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways, Shantanu Thakur were also present on the occasion.
Piyush Goyal praised the efforts undertaken by the ports, shipping and waterways ministry in enhancing the EXIM trade capacity of India by which it has achieved more 450 billion dollars of trade in 2022-23.
The global summit witnessed participation from a large number of countries, 215 international and nationalspeakers and 50,000 physical and virtual attendees. Building upon the legacy of its preceding editions, the third meet unveiled broader prospects for domestic and international maritime stakeholders.
Highlighting role of innovation and technology, Sonowal said, “India has been at the forefront of research and development, and implementation of existing technologies towards driving sectoral efficiency, building capacity. Establishing Digital Centre of Excellence for Maritime Efficiency (COEME) is one of the many initiatives that displays Modi government’s commitment towards technological advancement – both towards indigenous and collaborative development. In line with this, harnessing the potential of India’s maritime start up ecosystem would be a key focus area for our government.”
During this three-day discourse, there was also much discussion about sustainable development with green ports and shipping, an area in which Norway and other leading maritime nations are defining best practices and setting standards that the rest of the world should follow.
“India, for example, plans to develop carbon neutrality among other globally trending areas on reduction of GHG emissions with the use of green fuels, electrified/renewable energy-based yard equipment, vehicles”, he further said.
Meanwhile, Dharmendra Pradhan emphasized on the need for providing seafarers with a more supportive and more comfortable working environment evolved in the post-pandemic era.
The summit also witnessed a series of insightful roundtables and sessions, each addressing critical aspects of the maritime sector including the key regional development initiatives with discussions on India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), BIMSTEC, Chabahar port INTSC corridor. Aspects like development of multiple ports of connectivity between Indian and the European Union countries combat geopolitical uncertainties, promoting maritime as gateway for BIMSTEC and IMEC economic corridors and facilitating joint forums to represent pertinent focus areas at IMO were some of the key areas of discussion.
The GMIS 2023 highlighted the opportunities in India’s cruise sector while bringing to light the Union government’s commitment to developing the cruise sector with measures including creation of cruise terminal infrastructure, incentivization with relaxation in taxes, institutional capacity building with training academies dedicated to cruise, and an attractive and stable regularity policy framework in line with international standards inviting international players to set up their base in India. The government is planning to soon release a holistic Cruise promotion policy.
Earlier, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the GMIS 2023 and laid the foundation stones for 21 projects worth Rs 18,800 crore. 34 MoUs worth Rs 3.24 lakh crore was inked during the Inaugural session. This included green projects having a share of Rs 1.8 lakh crore and projects for port development and modernization worth Rs 1.1 lakh crore. He also launched the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 – a roadmap for maritime sector development for the next 25 years, the Amrit Kaal to make India Atmanirbhar by 2047.
Modi also shared his vision of unlocking investment of Rs 80 lakh crores for the development of maritime sector during this period. At the roundtable on Global Economic Corridors, as many as 60 representatives from various countries attended, which included CEOs from 33 international companies and 17 Indian companies.
