— Dertje Meijer, President & CEO, Port of Amsterdam
During Amsterdam's trade mission to India recently, Port of Amsterdam signed an
agreement with a major shipping agent and held a seminar on port logistics in
Mumbai. Port of Amsterdam is willing to play a key role in the cargo flows heading
to and from the subcontinent, particularly when containers, cars and project cargoes
are involved.
Dertje Meijer speaks to
Jibran Buchh in an exclusive interview.
What is your opinion about
Indian ports?
Indian ports are in dire need of
sophisticated infrastructure,
from land-ways leading to ports.
There are lots delays and hindrances
in the system, not just in
logistics but also in taxation system;
when goods are moved
from one state to another, they
charge different rates of taxes.
So India needs to improve its
infrastructure, both hardware
and software, for seamless and
free flow of goods coming from
other countries to yours.
India has great potential for
exports and once the problems
of logistics and movements are
solved, there would be no stopping
the Indian port sector.
How would you compare Indian
ports vis-à-vis EU ports?
What Indian ports can learn
from the ports of Amsterdam
and Netherlands is transparency
i.e. be open about your
schedule time and arrival and
departure time. We have a very
supportive customs. In the
Netherlands, we have authorised
economic operatorship
and when you are the trusted
company, you can do the
inspection yourself or you can
ask the customs to do it. You
can follow your cargo or your
products. We used to have lots
of regulations but we replaced
it with transparency which is
required in India too.
Does the Port of Amsterdam
have investment plan in India?
Not yet, investment in Indian
ports will be possible only when
our customers are interested.
Port privatisation of ports in
the EU happened long before it
did in India. Do you think privatisation
will help Indian
ports to grow?
We have not privatised the port
company yet, but we do have privatised
terminals and we do
have a lot of competition now but
it is good for business.
Corporatisation of our ports
may take place next year, which
would be beneficial for us, in
that ports will be less dependent
on political decisions. The owners
will remain owners but the
Dutch government will become
shareholders. It won't be a private
company but a public company.
So yes, privatisation may
help and it's for the good of the
port sector.
In spite of recessionary trends
in the EU, the port sector has
been largely profitable.
The first thing which is of great
importance is to create good
relationship, trust one another and create an atmosphere
wherein we can learn from
each other. I don't know about
the Indian port industry but
our port is pretty flexible. Technology
remains one of the
important elements of our port
e.g. the iPhone application
which makes all the information
available to customers or
clients. This way they don't
have to call our offices time
and again because they know
the exact status of their goods,
cargo or ship.
The ports are more communicable
in providing information
not just about cargo and containers;
in fact, more digitalised
data is used to manage
ports which is very crucial.
What are the future plans of
the Port of Amsterdam?
We will double our cargo volume
by 2020 and intensify the
use of land. We will have a
number of new sea locks
and corporatise our ports;
these are the two main
things we will do. Sustainability
is also very important, so
we will make sure that the
city and port relationship
remains healthy.