| CII has as many as 5000 employees and it has decided to help them with supply chain and logistics management. |
| Speaking at `Logistics East' organised by CII (eastern region) here today, chairman of its national council on logistics, N Kumar, said this was CII's commitment to its members to help them in logistics management. It has decided to set up a logistics institute and hold biennial events. |
| Kumar said that companies like Dell, Toyota and Wal-Mart have become success stories primarily due to superior supply-chain management and logistics capabilities. |
| In India, logistics cost was 15 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), against an average eight to nine per cent, he said. |
| Thus, there was tremendous potential for savings in this area, Kumar said. If it was reduced by one per cent, companies could save nearly $4.8 billion per year. |
| Hemant Kanoria, chairman of infrastructure sub-committee of CII (Eastern region), said that better supply-chain management could reduce cost substantially. |
| The governor of West Bengal, Viren J Shah, who inaugurated the seminar, said the expert group set up by the government on commercialisation of infrastructure projects predicted overall port traffic of 565 million tonnes by 2006-07. |
| Creation of additional port capacity to handle the projected traffic would require an investment of over Rs 170 billion. |
| This investment would not be possible from government coffers. Through private-public partnership, areas for development as hubs for logistics infrastructure facilities should be identified. These centres would handle outward and inward flow of goods and services. |
| Joint ventures for development of infrastructure would have to be worked out between the government and private investors. This will help reduce inter-regional and intra-regional disparities within the country as these would also generate employment. |
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