New Delhi: World Logistics Passport (WLP), a loyalty programme established to increase trading opportunities between emerging markets, is expanding in India with Hyderabad registering as a hub and two subsidiaries of the GMR conglomerate registering as partners.
More than 10 countries are now part of the major policy initiative with trading nations including Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa among others. In addition, major multinational corporations including UPS, Pfizer, Sony, Johnson & Johnson and LG are also engaged with WLP.
Hyderabad is the second WLP hub registered in India after Mumbai. The city is strategically important for the country’s international exports of goods and services, totaling 21 billion dollars. With trade routes to Mumbai and New Delhi as well as to WLP’s global network, Hyderabad’s trade infrastructure includes Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
Earlier this year, WLP signed Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal and Nepal as partners.
“As one of the first countries to engage in our programme, India showed a clear commitment to thinking differently about how goods and services move round the world,” said WLP’s CEO Mike Bhaskaran. “Today’s announcement is yet another endorsement of this new approach to global trade, and we are eying additional expansion in the country as we look to widen our offering.”
WLP creates opportunities for business across Africa, Asia, Central and South America to improve existing trading routes, and develop new ones through the world’s first logistics loyalty programme for freight forwarders and traders.
It overcomes non-tariff trade barriers by fast-tracking cargo movement, reducing administrative costs, advancing cargo information and facilitating movement between ports and air.