The Hindu Business Line : Meet to bridge gaps

Sri Lanka Shippers' Council — the apex body of shippers in the island nation — will be hosting in Colombo the 29th annual general meeting of the Federation of ASEAN Shippers' Council and the third meeting of the Asian Shippers Council in August. Delegates from the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, as also all ASEAN members, will attend the four-day conference due to begin from August 4. The associate members, from India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Korea, Australia, Hong Kong and Macau, will also be present, while delegations from the Japanese Shippers Council, the European Shippers Council, the South African Shippers Council, the Union of African Shippers Council and the National Industrial Transportation League of the US will come as observers. The theme of the conference is Bridging Gaps — how to foster a win-win partnership between the shippers and the ship-owners. The most common complaint of shippers in any country is that arbitrary measures by ship-owners affect the trade. The Sri Lanka summit, it is hoped, will throw up new thinking and give new directions on how to make a fitting adjustment between the competing claims of shippers and ship-owners.

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