Maritime London accompanies Lord Mayor to India

Realising India's Maritime Growth Potential: Maritime London Chief Executive Doug Barrow reports on April's promotional trip to India

Lord Mayor David Lewis addressed the Indian shipping communities in Mumbai and Chennai

At the end of February the idea was suggested that a Maritime London delegation might accompany the Lord Mayor to India in mid April.

The main aim of these visits by the Lord Mayor is in support of the financial services of the United Kingdom.

Our maritime services are a prime example of a niche financial sector and their value to the UK economy has been well tabled in the past.

It was decided to accompany the Lord Mayor providing it was in support of his objectives and in the best interests of our members.

To achieve these goals, the idea of a seminar in Mumbai was mooted, but the difficulties of organising such an event at such a distance with such limited time were also identified.

We were extremely fortunate in having the support of Jeff Glekin from the British Deputy High Commission (BDHC) in Mumbai. He had recently attended a briefing session hosted by the Economic Development Office (EDO) of the City of London which included a presentation from Maritime London.

In Chennai

We were also fortunate that the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) offered to provide the industry sector support in India. The Mumbai branch soon rallied to the cause and changed what was to have been a pure ICS seminar into a jointly co-hosted event with Maritime London.

We soon became committed to going to Mumbai and, as the Lord Mayor was visiting Chennai, it seemed logical to accompany him there, and the ICS Madras Branch and BDHC Chennai came to our assistance. Our aim was to develop topics that would inform the potential audiences and showcase the maritime services represented by Maritime London.

Time was rushing by, the events required publicity and invitations had to be despatched so no time was lost in harnessing our knowledge base. We soon had a coordinated programme for both locations, a strong delegation of speakers with a good range of relevant topics and, with the support of the EDO, were arranging visas, hotels and travel plans. There was also good coordination with the Lord Mayor's office to ensure we were all fully briefed on the purpose of his visit and how they could assist us in arranging any specific meetings.

Just over a month from inception and we were all heading to India, from various corners of the globe, in support of the two week visit to India. With over 50 people, it was the largest delegation ever to accompany the Lord Mayor on a visit to India, and of those, 16 were from the maritime sectors.

Mr S Hajara, Chairman Shipping Corporation of India and the Lord Mayor

After a reception for the local business community on the Sunday evening at the Chennai residence of Mike Connor, the British Deputy High Commissioner - South India, we looked forward to our seminar on the Monday morning, and were not disappointed. The Taj Coromandel provided good facilities and we were greeted with a well equipped room. Over 80 delegates came to hear the eight speakers from the UK. The seminar was opened by Mike Connor followed by an informative keynote speech by the Lord Mayor.

I gave an overview of the range of maritime services provided by Maritime London members and demonstrated how they worked together. Braemar Seascope was represented by Alan Marsh whose paper was entitled "The Ascent of India - An opportunity for energy shipping".

Phillip Williams from the Baltic Exchange gave a concise presentation on how to manage modern freight risks through the use of Forward Freight Agreements. Risk management was the theme of the next paper from David Peel of RightShip (UK), but this time by the intelligent use of ship vetting.

Jonathan Andrews from Steamship Insurance explained the relationship between India and the International Group of P&I clubs.

Developments and opportunities in shipping finance was the first of three legal papers, this one given by Nigel Thomas of Watson Farley & Williams.

Braemar Seacope's Alan Marsh

It was followed by a presentation looking at the current trends in ship building contracts by Holman Fenwick and Willan's partner Alistair Mackey and Dharmendra Nair of Thomas Cooper concluded by looking at some of the clauses of the Norwegian Saleform for sale and purchase.

Following a brief, but incisive Q&A session, Mr Ramamoorthy Swaminathan, Vice Chairman of the ICS Madras Branch closed the seminar. A first class buffet lunch sponsored by kindly Braemar Seascope and Holman Fenwick & Willan allowed all delegates an opportunity to network and journalists to conduct interviews. The 28 strong delegation successfully made the transit to Mumbai that evening where we were enjoined by other colleagues in readiness for the next day's seminar.

A full house

The Taj Mahal Palace was the venue for the full day seminar on "Realising India's Maritime Growth Potential", organised by the ICS - Mumbai Branch and co-hosted by Maritime London.

Speakers for the morning sessions were arranged by the ICS and included amongst the speakers Messrs Sayer, Greenwood and Phillips from London. Topics included the role and scope of the ICS, containerisation in India and the feedering and cargo distribution along Indian ports.

Speakers in the second session gave papers on emerging Indian ports, shipbroking potential in India ending with Mr S Hajara, the Chairman of the Shipping Corporation of India speaking on India's maritime potential. He was subsequently awarded Emeritus Membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers by their President, Mr Richard Sayer.

After a networking buffet lunch, again sponsored by Braemar Seascope and Holman

Mr Hajara receives Emeritus membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers from ICS President Richard Sayer watched by Capt Gave Sarkari of ICS Mumbai

Fenwick & Willan, the afternoon sessions commenced with a keynote speech from the Lord Mayor. The two sessions were chaired by Richard Sayer of Galbraiths and Bob Deering on Ince & Co.

In addition to a repeat of the papers presented in Chennai, we also had a powerful and challenging keynote address to start the final session by Mr Yudhishthir Khatau, MD of Varun Shipping Company and an additional paper from Professor Hilton Staniland from the Institute of Maritime Law on "Shipping Law out of London".

Stephen Swabey concluded the presentations giving delegates 10 reasons why they should consider using London as a maritime and financial centre if they were looking outside of India.

Yadhishthir Khatau, Managing Director of Varun Shipping

Our thanks also go to Messrs Galbraiths and RightShip (UK) for sponsoring the tea breaks. Our host for the evening reception was the British Deputy High Commissioner - Mumbai, Mrs Vicky Treadell who had invited about 200 of Mumbai's leading business figures giving us all an opportunity to develop new relationships which was much appreciated. The majority of our 16 strong maritime delegation either returned to their offices or stayed for a few days in Mumbai to further their business interests.

David Peel continued on with the Lord Mayor to Pune and then on to New Delhi where he was joined by Michael Drayton of the Baltic Exchange. It is understood that they both had highly positive meetings with government Ministers.

We are now entering the post visit phase. To date, we have received very positive feedback from both Indian and UK sources. Maritime London has been invited back to Chennai and Mumbai in conjunction with future visits by the Lord Mayor and also independent of such visits.

Various delegates have also been invited back individually. The general perception is that those new to the Indian market are anticipating new business and those with established relationships found the visit worthwhile as it increased their corporate profile.

Six weeks from inception to completion of a successful visit with back-to-back conferences in two major cities over 5,000 miles away. Where shall we go next?