High logistic cost impacts competitiveness and movement of goods; govt taking steps to reduce hurdles: Prabhu

New Delhi, July 30 (KNN) The government is taking measures, both legislative as well as administrative, to reduce logistics related hurdles for boosting domestic and global trade, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

He said high cost of logistics impacts competitiveness and movement of goods.

The Minister said that Logistics Wing has been created in the Department of Commerce for the integrated development of this sector.

Due to these efforts, infrastructure status has been granted to warehousing, cold chains and multimodal logistics parks. The Ministry is working on a National Logistics Policy and also bringing out a policy on the development of Multi-modal Logistics Parks to be announced soon.

Further, the Minister said that the cost and speed of logistics at present is hindering the market share that Indian products deserve and in order to solve these issues in an integrated and holistic way the Centre for Trade Facilitation and Logistics (CTFL) has been given a mandate by Department of Commerce (Logistics Division) to prepare a plan and act for following objectives:

To bring together industry, academia, governments & organizations of national and international level, to work on the key supply chain and logistics, management challenges facing firms in the globalized environment.

To train and build the required Human resource skills through appropriate training and academic programs and create a cadre of Trade Facilitation & Logistics management experts/professionals.

To impart training to Government officials who are working in the Logistics & Trade facilitation sectors.

The Ministry has agreed to provide a block one-time funding support of 80.00 lakhs towards initial infrastructure and a phase wise support of 339.90 lakhs for four years. This centre will attempt to document and monitor the trade and logistics activities and suggest suitable measures for its improvement.

The Minister also released the logo of Logistics division. It is a graphic symbol representing a pair of swans who are known for their ability to travel long distances and are comfortable in the sky, water and on earth and represents team work, synergy and coordination between various partners involved in logistics. 

The Indian logistics industry is estimated at around USD 215 billion, which is growing at over 10 per cent annually.

"We have to increase our share in global trade and logistics plays a very important role in that," Prabhu said while launching a logo for India Logistics. The logo was designed by the National Institute of Design.

Prabhu said that the ministry is developing a national logistics portal as a single window market place to link all stakeholders, and preparing an integrated strategy to reduce cost of exports, imports and domestic trade.

Prabhu said billions of dollars of investments are required to improve logistics sector.