5 Reasons Why Sea Ports Are Major Contributing Factor For The Economic Growth Of A Country
A seaport is a location on a seashore or a coast that contains one or more harbours where ships can load or unload to transport people or goods from one place to another. Ports are one of the most important parts of the transportation sector and are also the key drivers of the country’s economy. Putting briefly, they offer a means of amalgamation into the global economy. With the removal of international trade barriers by the WTO agreements, international manufacturers have started working beyond their geography by successfully establishing their supply chain systems.
The global trade regime has enabled manufacturers to relocate and disintegrate their production and manufacturing plants to better and affordable locations of the global economy. And seaports play a major part in this transformation.
Importance of Sea Ports For India
India is a country that is surrounded by the sea from all three sides. It has a coastline of nearly 7,517 kilometres along the eastern and western sides of the mainland. With 12 major and 187 small ports all over the country, India is named among the marine countries that offer the largest shipping fleets in the entire world. As per the Ministry of Shipping, nearly 95% of India’s trade by volume and approx. 70% as per the value moves along the ports. These figures are enough to state the significance of seaports and their contribution to the country’s developing economy.
Further, with the growing trend of foreign countries shifting their manufacturing units to affordable countries and the country’s need to create employment opportunities for youths, India could be the next largest manufacturing hub second to China. This also means that greater efforts should be made on developing and improving the port infrastructure.
5 Reasons Why Sea Ports Are Contributing To The Growth of Economy
1. Accelerates Economic Development
Ports act as a bridge that connects the economy of two countries. They move goods from one country to another fast, safe and frictionless. Not just that, they boost the international trade in terms of both import and export. An increase in the export opportunities results in greater industrialization of the country, whereas the increase in import opportunities results in the increase of customer base and overall growth of businesses and the economy.
2. Contributes to the Development of Cities
A good majority of the biggest cities in the world are along with the coastal areas. Ports weave the economic activities around the cities such as finance, banking, logistics, insurance, etc. This results in the development of towns around the ports.
3. Increases Employment Opportunities
Ports offer excellent employment opportunities for the individuals of the country. They increase both direct and indirect employment rate. Direct employment includes job opportunities on the ports themselves, whereas indirect employment gets a boost due to industrialization and demand for other contributing services like insurance, banking, logistics, etc.
4. Beneficial For Environment
As compared to the other types of transportation, ports are highly environment-friendly. This is because railway systems require nearly double the energy needed by ships and road transportation requires about 10 times the sea transportation. For the last few decades, the world is becoming more and more concerned about the planet earth. With advantages like lower energy consumption and lower emission, sea transportation is also contributing to the betterment of the environment.
5. Development of Country’s Infrastructure
With the rapid increase in economic activity between the ports and the hinterland, the infrastructure of the country including roads, waterways, railways are also developing. Better infrastructure facilitates business operations within the country to a great extent.
As you can see, ports are one of the key contributors to the economic growth of the country. This is the reason why more and more countries are putting more stress on developing their ports and related infrastructure.
