COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s leading forwarder Expo Freight (EFL) celebrated a significant milestone in cross border trade in the Indian subcontinent when its shipment for Marks & Spencer crossed over seamlessly to India from Bangladesh, reports colombopge.com Sunday.
This marked the first occasion a truck carrying cargo was allowed to cross over to India from Bangladesh without requiring the consignment to be unloaded and transferred to another truck at the border as has been the practice.
Hanif Yusoof, Founder & President of EFL and Group CEO of Expolanka Holdings PLC noted that the occasion heralds the beginning of an encouragingly simplified cross border logistics process which could accelerate and substantially increase bilateral trade between the two countries.
“I’m immensely proud of EFL’s role in working with our partners to open up opportunities for trade in the region,” Yusoof said.
This feat was facilitated by an agreement signed in June 2015 between India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal known as the BBIN Motor Vehicles Assessment. Under its terms, the passage of cargo and passenger vehicles is expected to follow a smoother transition of movement between the four countries.
EFL was the first freight forwarder to implement the passage of cargo from Bangladesh to India under its auspices. The simplified process is a welcome change for the apparel centric economies, making the region more competitive not just to global brands, but to the emerging domestic sector looking at regional growth.
Industry experts predict the agreement will effectively reduce transit time for cargo trucks by approximately three days, and overall logistics costs by up to 20%. Moreover, transforming what are traditionally perceived as transport corridors into economic corridors could potentially increase intraregional trade within South Asia by almost 60% and with the rest of the world by over 30%.
The trucks now follow a new Customs inspection and verification procedure using the E-Seal, which was affixed to the EFL truck in Bangladesh. The trucks can be monitored via GPS enabling customers to track the much faster movement of their cargo. This streamlined solution will continue to offer complete visibility to global customers sourcing from the region.
The truck’s arrival in Delhi from Dhaka via Magura, Jessore, the Benapole-Petrapole border, and Kolkata was celebrated with a flag off ceremony at the Regional Transport Office in Kolkata on 30 August, followed by a press conference in Delhi on 5 September.
