Mr. N Sivasailam, Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce,Government of India underlined the importance of custom brokers to the logistics sector while addressing the third Executive Committee Meeting of the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) on 7th and 8th February, 2020 at Nashik.
The meeting was held for the tenure of 2019-21 and was attended by a large number of Office Bearers, EC Members and Board of Advisors of the Federation.
The prime focus of the event, as conveyed by Mr AV Vijaykumar, Chairman, FFFAI, was to chart out future course of action for customs brokers for their sustainable growth.
In a special Interactive Session during the EC meeting which was addressed by Mr. N Sivasailam, he threw light on the immense potential that customs brokers can explore in the logistics field, be it domestic logistics or even international cargo movement. He further emphasized that this remained untapped and there are huge growth opportunities for customs brokers.
The Special Secretary highlighted the recent initiatives that included draft National Logistics Policy for the benefit of trade facilitation, increase in EX-IM trade and thereby strengthening the logistics industry in India. He also answered queries from the FFFAI members on various issues pertaining to trade facilitation.
Mr. Sivasailam also underscored the key aspects of the Budget 2020 Announcements, especially on agro exports, from logistics industry’s point of view. In his opinion, with adequate support from the government as regard to industry-friendly policies and infrastructure development the logistics sector in India will witness tremendous growth in the days to come and Agro-logistics would play the key role with introduction of Kisan Rail and Krishi Udaan.
In addition, the Special Secretary also underlined the importance of digitization, use of technology and an effective online portal to fulfill the requirements of logistics trade practitioners and other stakeholders. He suggested that FFFAI should create an ecosystem on national basis which would provide a nationwide network in supply chain.
