The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) President, Dr. Ivan Petrov, visited the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) headquarter in Mumbai on June 13, 2023.
FFFAI Chairman, Shankar Shinde, and other office bearers, along with EC members and the board of advisors, discussed various trade-related aspects, including government policy matters, infrastructure, IT and digitization, skill development, etc., for the benefit of the CB and Freight Forwarding communities in India. Both leaders emphasised the long-standing relationship between the two federations and initiatives for future cooperation regarding the members’ benefits.
Dr. Petrov urged for more participation of FFFAI leadership and members in the multifarious Committees of FIATA and acknowledged that FIATA is composed of 109 Association Members and over 6,000 Individual Members. Overall, representing a multimodal industry of 40,000 freight forwarding and logistics firms.
According to him, there is a need for an awareness programme to highlight the benefits of individual members and companies, who are very important components of FIATA.
Geopolitical challenges have made it impossible in some global regions to rely on one mode of transport. Seamless integration of different transport modes is necessary to provide efficient and sustainable transport solutions. International cooperation, trade agreements, and infrastructure development can facilitate connectivity between all transport modes.
He also emphasised the skill development and role of training institutions and assured FIATA’s support for the different wings of FFFAI, especially the women’s wing, to expand their horizons internationally.
“FIATA is the voice of small and medium-sized enterprises and developing countries, helping them to access markets by staying on top of advocacy and policy work,” Dr. Petrov asserted.
The FFFAI Chairman, Shankar Shinde, felt that the relationship would have to be further strengthened for the mutual benefits and interests of the 30 FFFAI Member associations, comprising about 6500 members.
He highlighted the recent initiatives of Indian Customs regarding trade facilitation and ease of doing business, especially the digital initiatives and faceless mechanisms, for the larger interest of the EXIM trade as well as the logistics industry.
