IMEC to cut logistics costs and boost maritime security, says Piyush Goyal

Trade minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will add to India’s maritime security and reduce the country’s reliance on a few trade routes.

 

Addressing the India-Mediterranean Business Conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Goyal said IMEC will provide faster connectivity at lower logistics costs.

 

“IMEC was launched in India’s G20 presidency, which aims to integrate India, the Middle East, and Europe through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and the European Union (EU). It will add to India’s maritime security and, as a strategy, it will reduce our reliance on very few routes which today can become detrimental to our maritime security,” he added.

 

Further, Goyal said the tourism sector holds tremendous promise in the relationship between India and the Mediterranean countries. “Tourism provides that huge cultural and economic connect that we must explore much faster. We must actually set up a working group,” the minister remarked.

 

The Mediterranean region is the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, which includes countries of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

 

Goyal argued that a robust people-to-people connect between India and Mediterranean countries will be great to kickstart the engagement, which can further be translated into a strong business relationship between the two.

 

He also listed various areas of cooperation between India and Mediterranean countries like the blue economy, renewable energy, digitisation, textiles, pharma, Information Technology (IT), manufacturing, and agriculture.

 

“We also have a huge number of common interests in the shipping sector, shipbuilding, ship ownership and cruise, developing Indian ports and expanding their capacity,” Goyal said.

 

IMEC aims to boost economic development by fostering connectivity and economic integration between Asia, the Persian Gulf, and Europe.

 

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this was signed during the G20 summit in New Delhi last year, with participation from governments such as India, the US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union. The project's key goal is to enhance transportation and communication links between Europe and Asia.

 

“Given the wonderful relations that our leaders share, it is time now we translate that into a similar strong bond between Indian and Mediterranean business persons,” Goyal said.

 

On foreign direct investment (FDI), the minister said that the inflows continue to be at elevated levels and India is targeting to become a much more attractive destination for these investments in the years to come. “We have a large amount of international investor interest," he added.

 

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the event, Goyal said that he has invited steel industry representatives to understand the unfair competition that some of them are facing. “(We will) take appropriate measures so that the steel industry remains vibrant, continues to grow, and adds jobs to the Indian economy,” he added.

 

Goyal opined that global trade remained subdued as the two wars (Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas) continued to hold back global trade. He said Indian exports in July fell owing to the lower volume of petroleum products’ exports. “The fall in non-petroleum products is not there and there is growth in our core domestically produced goods. So, I am not yet concerned about it, but we would like to encourage our petroleum exports also,” he noted.