Maritime India Summit 2016, the Shipping Ministry’s flagship event, will be held in Mumbai from April 14 to 16. The objective of the conference is to explore potential business opportunities in the country’s maritime sector.

The three-day event, to be held at Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre, will hold B2B and G2B meetings besides conferences, exhibitions and demo sessions.

Maiden event

A Janardhana Rao, Managing Director, Indian Ports Association, said this is a maiden event being organised by the Ministry, which will provide a unique platform for key stakeholders to interact and explore the immense potential that Indian maritime sector offers.

South Korea is the partner country for the event and will be represented by a high-level ministerial and business delegation. More than 50 other maritime nations have also been invited to attend.

Rao, who was in Kochi for an official meeting, told Business Line that the Ministry had identified several sectors to attract investment, including port development, port-led industrialisation, shipping, ship building and repair, inland waterways, coastal shipping, cruise and lighthouse tourism. The summit is expected to attract investments worth ₹10 billion.

Demo sessions

An exhibition along with exclusive demo sessions will be held on all three days to showcase the latest technology, and products and services.

According to him, the government has taken up a number of initiatives to facilitate the growth of maritime sector. It had identified more than 150 projects to strengthen the maritime infrastructure and increasing the total cargo handling capacity through Greenfield port development and capacity addition to existing ports under the Sagarmala project. This would entail an investment of ₹3 lakh crore. Apart from capacity addition, port efficiencies are being improved through mechanisation and modernisation.

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