India - Norway Cooperation for Maritime Cluster Development in India
Early in his tenure, Hon. PM Modi inaugurated his flagship project - SAGARMALA for the development of maritime sector. At the Maritime India Summit (April 2016), he announced plans to setup industrial clusters along 7500 km long coastline of India. In June 2020, India’s first Maritime Cluster started taking shape on ground in Goa with the state government allocating land for setting up Common Facility Center. This is an important milestone for the development of future ready maritime industry in India.
Konkan coast has long history of trading with the West & Arab world for hundreds of years. Goa itself has a rich maritime heritage & glorious ship building tradition. The “Konkan Maritime Cluster” will help preserve this heritage & take the tradition forward.
Congratulations to the Goan Shipping fraternity - the ship designers, shipbuilders, equipment manufacturers, shipowners; government agencies & officials involved including Ministry of Shipping and DG Shipping of India, Industrial Development Authorities among others. Several maritime professionals played an important role in the process and credit goes to them as well.
Team Norway is proud to be associated with the process of maritime cluster development in India. It was during the Maritime India Summit, Innovation Norway presented to PM Modi and highlighted several commonalities between SAGARMALA & the highly successful network of maritime clusters in Norway. In addition to industrial growth, community development is an important feature of both. First feasibility study for cluster development was conducted by Norwegian company DNV GL in the year 2015. This was followed up with delegation visits to Norway, more recently in the month of November 2019 to the Blue Maritime Cluster in Alesund & Ocean Hyway Cluster in Floro and GCE Ocean in Bergen.
Norwegian Maritime Clusters provide an ecosystem to the stakeholders from industry, government, research institutes, academia and policy makers to collaborate. The clusters have played important role in making Norway a “Leading Maritime Technology Nation” (Source: Leading Maritime Capitals Report 2019 - Menon Economics) because of their strong emphasis on Innovation, Digitalisation & Sustainability. I have visited several maritime hubs - Singapore, Shanghai, Rotterdam & Dubai. However, most of these are focussed on one particular aspect of maritime value chain. In contrast to this, the clusters in Norway have a wholistic approach and cover the entire value chain from ideation to commercialisation. Focus on specific areas such as deep sea, clean fuel technologies, offshore etc. and geographical spread is another important feature of Norwegian maritime clusters.
An Indian Delegation was in Ulsteinvik (Norway) recently and we came across a quote by Norwegian businessman, Idar Ulstein : “We Cooperate when we can and we Compete when we must”. This encapsulates the philosophy guiding Maritime Clusters in Norway.
Konkan Maritime Cluster is a step in the right direction. Other shipping hubs in India such as Kochi, Kolkata, Chennai & Gujarat coast also have all necessary ingredients required for the development of world class maritime clusters. This is one area, which holds immense potential for India Norway collaboration.
Contact for India Norway Maritime Cooperation:
Mr. Helge Tryti, Director - Innovation Norway India / Helge.Tryti@innovasjonnorge.no | Mr. Pankaj Patil, Senior Advisor - Innovation Norway/Pankaj.R.Patil@innovationnorway.no
Vice Chancellor at INDIAN MARITIME UNIVERSITY
4yAs DG Shipping, I had met with stakeholders with the idea of a Maritime cluster, with possible assistance from MSME Ministry. My batchmate who was Secretary was happy to support the project. The team in DGS - especially Capt Behl - worked hard at bringing the industry together. It is so satisfying the see the idea that was sown in 2018 beginning to bear fruits. My most sincere wishes for all success 👍
Freelance Structural Engineer - Offshore structures ( oil and gas/ offshore wind) Connect with me for work share partnerships.
4yPankaj, What is the roadmap ahead?
Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Amity University Mumbai
4yCongratulations.. Pankaj
Managing Director
4yMany Thanks Pankaj Ji ,for sharing the vision of Goa on development of India's first Maritime Cluster in Goa .We look to partner with Global Organisations for empowering the stakeholders to socio economic development through sustainable approach . It Our vision to form an association of all Maritime clusters in the world to address maritime concerns and pave way for mutual growth.
The Norwegian Consulate General in Mumbai together with Norwegian companies look forward to being part in the follow up of this important cooperation.