Antwerp port offers to help develop AP trade

Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh: 17/08/2016: Belgian Ambassador to India Jan Luykx (front seat) along with Belgian Consul-General in Chennai Bart De Groof and representatives of Antwerp Port Authority being taken around Visakha Container Terminal Pvt by its director Vir K Kotak during their visit to the Port in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, August 17, 2016. Photo: K.R. Deepak

Belgium’s Antwerp Port Authority, which operates the largest port in Europe after Rotterdam, has offered its expertise to explore trade through ports in the east coast of India to Europe and assist in the development of greenfield ports in Andhra Pradesh. The European nation is also keen to help develop industrial and petroleum clusters, inland waterways and smart cities in AP.

A team consisting of Ambassador of Belgium in India Jan Luykx, Belgium Consul-General Dr. Bart De Groof, Antwerp Port Authority Chief Commercial Officer Luc Arnouts and India Representative Raj Khalid were in Visakhapatnam to explore various opportunities on Wednesday.

In an exclusive interaction with The Hindu , they said they were keen on extending consultancy and expertise in various spheres so as to increase bilateral trade between India and Belgium.

“Our economy is driven by private sector and 85 per cent of our GDP is through exports,” the Ambassador said. Last year, the bilateral trade was worth 12 billion euros, the largest by any European country after Germany and the U.K. Exports were worth euro 8 billion.

“Most of the trade is being done through ports in west coast of India. Now we want to explore opportunities through Chennai and Visakhapatnam ports,” Mr. Luykx said.

“We have expertise in developing urban infrastructure, IT, logistics and other fields. Given an opportunity, we want to participate in development of Amaravati, the people’s capital of AP, smart cities in Visakhapatnam and Amaravati, chemical corridor and industrial complex proposed near Machilipatnam,” he said.

Container trade

Antwerp is located near Brussels in Flanders in close vicinity to the main economic centres of the European Union. About 60 per cent of the European power was situated within 500 km from Antwerp, a municipal port with a history of over 200 years.

Of 208 million tonnes handled in 2015, containers alone accounted for 113.3 million tonnes. In the first half of 2016, it registered a growth rate of over 3.6 per cent.

Mr. Arnouts said they were willing to explore container transhipment from Visakhapatnam as the greenfield terminal there was attracting lot of products. Belgium also had expertise in using inland waterways.