Belgium Ambassador to India Jan Luykx today invited industry from Chandigarh and Punjab region, especially the exporting MSMEs and large scale companies to operate from the Port of Antwerp, saying it is the largest integrated port of Europe.
"The Port of Antwerp, located in Flanders, Belgium close to the main economic centres in the European Union will easily allow the North Indian exporters to reach out to a market base of 500 million people across more than 40 countries in just one day," he said here.
The port has latest lifting technology, state-of-the-art handling equipment, automated warehouses and a throughout cold storage system, including cold containers, cold trucks and cold warehouses which doesn't let the cold chain break," he added.
"North India has immense exporting potential and Belgium is ready to offer all possible support to the industry in this region. We can really work together in the fields of food processing, IT & ITeS, Automotive, Advanced Engineering/Manufacturing, ICT/Digital Technologies, clean energy etc, considering a unique similarity of Punjab and Chandigarh region with Belgium," he informed.
"We firmly believe that this region is slated for immense growth in exports in the coming years, with the Make in India campaign, skills and the entrepreneurial spirit prevalent here and hence the port of Antwerp can play a critical role for the exporters here in reaching out to Europe effectively.
The key advantage of this port is that it is a virtual free zone, enabling storage and handling of products at same location electronically, with no need for pre-financing. Further, its location is ideal as 60 per cent of the European purchasing power is situated within 500 km (311 miles) from Antwerp," he emphasised.
"Though India is already a top 10 trading partner of Antwerp with 5.1 million tonnes in 2014, but there is immense potential as India is the only growing BRICS nation. We can act as an ideal trans-shipment Centre for Indian goods, which would save a lot of your transit costs and time," he added.
