WASHINGTON: Belgium’s Antwerp Port Authority, which operates the largest port in Europe after Rotterdam, has offered its expertise to explore trade through ports in the east coast of India to Europe and assist in the development of greenfield ports in Andhra Pradesh. The European nation is also keen to help develop industrial and petroleum clusters, inland waterways and smart cities in AP.
A team consisting of Ambassador of Belgium in India Jan Luykx, Belgium Consul-General Dr. Bart De Groof, Antwerp Port Authority Chief Commercial Officer Luc Arnouts and India Representative Raj Khalid were in Visakhapatnam to explore various opportunities on Wednesday.
In an exclusive interaction with The Hindu, they said they were keen on extending consultancy and expertise in various spheres so as to increase bilateral trade between India and Belgium. “Our economy is driven by private sector and 85 per cent of our GDP is through exports,” the Ambassador said. Last year, the bilateral trade was worth 12 billion euros, the largest by any European country after Germany and the U.K. Exports were worth euro 8 billion.
“Most of the trade is being done through ports in west coast of India. Now we want to explore opportunities through Chennai and Visakhapatnam ports,” Mr. Luykx said. “We have expertise in developing urban infrastructure, IT, logistics and other fields. Given an opportunity, we want to participate in development of Amaravati, the people’s capital of AP, smart cities in Visakhapatnam and Amaravati, chemical corridor and industrial complex proposed near Machilipatnam,” he said.
