Enhance air connectivity with Central Asia
India and Uzbekistan are in an advanced stage of negotiation for export and import of Agri products, Manish Prabhat, Joint Secretary (ERS), Ministry of External Affairs has said at a webinar on 21 Aug 2020.
The combined annual trade with Central Asia is less than US$2 billion. “The level of trade does not reflect our political will that we enjoy with Central Asian countries,” he told participants at the ‘The Way Forward for Developing India-Central Asia Air Corridor’, organized by FICCI.
But Prabhat was quick to point out that India is at an advanced stage of negotiation with Uzbekistan for export & import of agricultural products.
The Indian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Prabhat Kumar pointed out that Central Asian countries are in the position to support air traffic from India.
The envoy emphasised on the potential of markets between India and Kazakhstan.
Establishing an air corridor will be very useful in passenger growth and goods traffic, according to Vandana Aggarwal, Senior Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation.
“Central Asian countries need to look at ways to ease regulation of our carriers in terms of landing rights, parking etc.,” added Aggarwal as officials reviewed and presented opportunities in Central Asia at the webinar.
Aggarwal also highlighted that India has been looking at the digitization of documents for seamless connectivity with the region.
Air bubble agreements with Kazakhstan was proposed by Karlygash Omurbayeva, Regional General Manager, Gulf and Indian Subcontinent, Air Astana.
She said that Air Astana has started flights to a few European countries during this pandemic and hoped India will be amongst those first group of countries to join them.
Sanjiv Edward, Chief Commercial Officer, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), emphasized on the use of Information Technology for air corridors. “Paperless transactions for business have become all the more relevant in these challenging times”, he said.
There is also a need to inter align with airlines and establish bilateral agreements between Indian and Central Asian airlines to enhance air connectivity, according to Vipin Vohra, Airfreight Convenor, Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) and Chairman of Continental Carriers Group of Companies and Chairman, TNX Continental Pvt Ltd. #freight #airlines #connectivity #CentralAsia #trade #Agri /fiinews.com
