BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government on Friday entered into an agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) for viability gap funding to encourage containerised cargo export/import shipping through Paradip port.
Principal secretary of MSME department Saswat Mishra and MD of MSC Agency (India) Pvt Ltd Capt Deepak Tiwari signed the agreement in presence of Minister for Industries and MSME Pratap Keshri Deb, chief secretary PK Jena and other senior officials.
At present, companies and business entities located in Odisha are doing huge volumes of containerised cargo export and import through seaports outside Odisha, especially through Kolkata/Haldia and Vizag ports and incurring extra logistics cost which is making their business less remunerative. Moreover, by shifting of export/import activity to seaports outside Odisha, the state is losing huge job opportunities.
The minister said containerised cargo export/import through Paradip port will immensely help exporters and importers of Odisha. It will also generate a huge number of direct and indirect employment in Odisha besides substantial tax revenue for the state government, he said.
MSC is the world’s largest container shipping company, accounting for about 23 per cent of global share. Its feeder ships will come to Paradip port twice or thrice a month. The exim container cargo of Paradip port will be connected to Colombo from where MSC will take the cargo to any part of the globe in larger ships. Once business at Paradip port grows, MSC’s feeder ships will come to Paradip port more frequently.
If MSC does not get enough business at Paradip, the state government will compensate the company as per the VGF agreement. MSME department had floated an advertisement in November last year seeking VGF proposal from shipping companies. MSC is likely to start its container cargo exim shipping service from Paradip Port next month.