Pune : The 49th Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) was held on Friday, Sept 14, 2012 at Marriot Hotel & Convention Centre, Pune.
Coinciding with the AGM, from Sept 13 - 15 2012, FFFAI held the Meetings Of Office Bearers, Councils, Sub-Committees & Executive Committee; the ‘Pune Customs House Agents Association’ hosted the Executive Committee Meeting.
The Golden Jubilee Celebration Mini Seminar, a series instituted during the term followed the AGM.
The meetings were attended by the Executive Committee Members from all over India. Numerous issues of importance to CHAs in particular and trade in general were discussed. Amongst the issues discussed pertained to infrastructure, capacity building including training, opening of training centres of Indian Institute of Freight Forwarding, 24 x 7 Customs operations etc.
Shri Vasa Seshagiri Rao, Commissioner of Customs, Pune while being felicitated, appreciated the new initiatives taken up by FFFAI & acknowledged that Customs House Agents play very important role in the Export Import trade of the country.
The highlights of the event were the launch of the `FFFAI Women’s Wing`, by the ace shooter, Smt. Anjali Bhagwat, the former world number one & one of the greatest Indian women athletes of all time. Women Forwarders, members of `FFFAI Women’s Wing` representing FFFAI Member locations participated in an elegant launch. Smt. Anjali Bhagwat, while launching this new initiative encouraged the women to participate in the National and International events.
Giving the background for launch of this wing, Chairman Shri Shantanu Bhadkamkar explained that not only as a responsible national body, women’s empowerment needs to be an integral part of our agenda but if we need increased participation of women in the industry to bridge the skill gap. He also shared that in South East Asia and Far East, women in fact dominated certain functional segments of the Freight Forwarding Industry. With FFFAI’s new initiative for Brand Building, surely more women will be attracted to this field, he felt.
Smt. Philomena Pereira, the Convenor of the Women’s Wing, stated that empowering women engaged in International Freight Forwarding was a need of the hour and the women were confident of taking the challenge & the newly launched wing will take new initiatives for women’s empowerment in this field, she thanked Shri Shantanu Bhadkamkar, Chairman of FFFAI for his encouragement & vision of initiating such an important well thought out initiative for the industry, which is largely men dominated. The new wing will help women from the second generation world wide pride in this industry; it will also open opportunities to fresh incumbents to be part of this industry, which is an important segment of the Logistics Industry.
Smt. Jyoti Bhadkamkar, while thanking Smt Bhagwat, informed foundation of this wing was blessed by the then President of India, H.E. Smt. Pratibhatai Patil, during the audience granted by the former President, Her Excellency was very pleased to note about launch of the women’s wing, shared very encouraging words.
FFFAI also felicitated and honoured the FFFAI Board of Advisors and presented them a Plaque, ‘In Appreciation of Outstanding Contribution to The Fraternity of Custom House Agents’. Further, the Executive Committee Member & Former Vice Chairman, Shri Ashish Pednekar was felicitated, and presented a Plaque ‘In Appreciation of Outstanding Contribution to the Fraternity of Custom House Agents’, in appreciation of his important role in the finalisation of CHALR 2004.
The highlight also included FFFAI CSR initiative of acknowledging the contribution of sports personnel & Armed Forces to the nation. Shri Raj Khalid, Sport Shooter: Raj Khalid is a former national champion, he is well known to the industry as India Representative of Port of Antwerp. More other personalities were honoured by presenting FFFAI Plaque of Honour ‘In Appreciation of Outstanding Contributions to Sports in the Country & for Service to the Nation’. It was a proud and an exciting moment for all when FFFAI Plaque of Honour was presented to War Veterans, ‘In Appreciation of Extraordinary Gallantry beyond Call of Duty & for Service to the Nation’. While acknowledging the felicitation,
Col Salunke announced that it was gratifying to be recognised by the citizens for the duty executed toward the nation. The Golden Jubilee Series Mini-Seminar included brilliant presentations by Shri Anand Deshpande, M.D. Persistent Systems Ltd, who shared his success story and entrepreneurial vision.
Shri Sankalp Bhatacharyja of KPMG, made a well researched presentation on the State of the Industry highlighting key findings and trends. Shri S. D. Chand, Dy. Commissioner of Customs, President Gold Medallist and the only WCO Accredited Trainer in India made an excellent presentation on Valuation, citing several cases. In course of deliberations, it was decided to study and address the issue of DDP/DDU/DAP shipments for ascertaining the assessable value. FFFAI also proudly launched quarterly in-house magazine and released the inaugural issue of ‘FFFAI News’. The elegantly brought out inaugural issue has raised great expectations from the next issue, which will be a Golden Jubilee issue.
All the participants complemented Capt Samarth and his team from Pune Customs House Agents Association for excellent organisation of meetings and events; Pune Association was also applauded for warm hospitality.
