GMB and Dubai ICS to sign deal

The twin agreements will be inked at an international conference and consultative meet on maritime clusters being hosted by the GMB in Ahmedabad today.

Ahmedabad — Even as the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the state regulator for all the government and private ports of Gujarat, is mulling revision of its port charges, it is all set to sign two co-operation agreements with the Dubai branch of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) and the Maritime Forum of Norway.

A GMB official told Khaleej Times that the board wanted to seek help from the two foreign agencies for developing a maritime cluster in Gujarat like the ones at Rotterdam, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The twin agreements will be inked at an international conference and consultative meet on maritime clusters being hosted by the GMB in Ahmedabad today.

The proposed maritime cluster will develop the soft infrastructure needed for the ports in Gujarat for housing shipping-related businesses — shipping agents, chartering agents, freight forwarders, maritime lawyers, ship financing agencies and other services.

At present, these services are being given to ports of Gujarat by agencies who are either based in cities like Mumbai and Chennai in India or at overseas locations like Dubai, Singapore and Colombo.

The Ahmedabad confabulations will be attended by experts from Japan, Norway, London, Singapore and others who will share their experiences.

Meanwhile, the GMB, which had last revised its port tariffs on July 20, is contemplating revising them and implementing the new charges from April next. GMB sources said in view of an evolving market scenario, the board was keen to assess the current tariff competitiveness of its ports, and rationalise the port tariff structure.mahesh@khaleejtimes.com