The Global Maritime India Summit, 2023, one of the largest maritime summits in the world, anchored Rs 10 lakh crores of investment during the three day event, which 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.
At the valedictory session of the GMIS, 2023, the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal unveiled the ‘GMIS 2023 Mumbai Declaration’ along with the Union Minister of Finance, Nirmal Sitharaman; the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal; the Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan; the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendrabhai Patel; the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis; the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shripad Naik, the Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shantanu Thakur among others.
Speaking at the valedictory session of GMIS, 2023, Sarbananda Sonowal said, “The Global Maritime India Summit, 2023 has made a wonderful beginning by securing an investment commitment of more than Rs 10 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 partner countries, more than 50 partner countries, all the stakeholders, 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.”
Piyush Goyal praised the efforts undertaken by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in enhancing the EXIM trade capacity of India by which it has achieved more 450 billion dollars of trade in 2022-23.
The three days of the summit 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 EU 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 the India’s cruise sector while bringing to light 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 release a holistic Cruise promotion policy.
Highlighting the achievements of the country’s maritime sector, Smt. Sitharaman said, “Over the past 9 years, our efforts have transformed the maritime sector, with a remarkable 4.2 billion US dollars in Foreign Direct Investments, driving progress in this vital industry. India's ports now lead globally, boasting a mere 0.9-day turnaround time, outperforming even international hubs like Singapore and Dubai.”
