The Hindu Business Line : `Public-pvt partnerships key to logistics facilities'

THE Governor of West Bengal, Mr Viren J. Shah, has presented a strong case for public-private partnerships with a view to identifying areas that can be developed as hubs for logistics infrastructure facilities so that they can form centres for both outward and inward flow of goods and services on a priority basis.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a conference on "Logistics East - Connectivity for Competitiveness" organised here on Wednesday by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Eastern Region (CII-ER), Mr Shah said the development of infrastructure requires huge financial resources. As such, depending solely on government initiative might be time consuming "something which industry cannot afford, especially due to the fact that our industries are required to compete with multinationals and conglomerates".

According to him, the public-private partnerships for creation of infrastructure could be on "mutually convenient and remunerative" basis. "Such an initiative would also reduce the inter-regional and intra-regional disparities within the country as these massive endeavours would essentially be a source for employment generation to a vast number of locals." In his theme address at the seminar, Mr N. Kumar, Chairman of CII's National Council of Logistics, said in India, logistics costs were pegged at 15 per cent of GDP compared with an average cost of 8-9 per cent in developed countries. As such, if logistics costs were to come down by 1 percentage point, the potential savings for India would be $4.8 billion per annum.

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