Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) has made its presence felt in air freight segment through its commendable efforts. ACFI is working towards achieving government’s ambitious growth plan of reaching 10 mn ton of air cargo by 2030. Yashpal Sharma, President, ACFI & MD, Skyways Group focusses on importance of collaboration and setting benchmark globally.
Ritika Arora Bhola
What are going to be your key responsibilities in your new position?
Since its formation, ACFI has been pursuing important trade matters related to process simplification, knowledge building through research and skilling industry workforce. The ACFI’s objectives cover areas, which can help the industry grow with an all-inclusive approach. My new role includes coordinating with each of our ‘Task Pillars’ created to continue the efficient work done by the past presidents and governing board members and address issues that represent interests of ACFI members.
What are the crucial areas of concern for the industry? What innovative solutions can you suggest for resolving the issues?
Today, we are positioned in terms of digital adoption, automation, and integration with other stakeholders of the logistics supply chain. Upskilling our existing workforce is one of the key concerns and with the upbeat projections of growth in the industry, we would need to collectively work to empower our workforce with training to make them future-ready.
Where do you see ACFI heading to in the next five years?
I will make my best efforts to take ACFI into a higher orbit by engaging with all stakeholders and policy makers at local and international level. Over the next five years, I see ACFI collaborating with various industry bodies in India and overseas to position air cargo strongly and contribute to carving out knowledge bank, process improvements and building a robust eco-system for galvanising the industry in the country.
What are ACFI’s upcoming projects, plans or events?
All our activities are defined under five task pillars. Each of these pillars has been working on their key points of action for this term (2022-24). The governing board has given itself 60-day timeline to structure things for our term. Work has been going on to set up the new teams for the task pillars and regional chapter set-ups. Post this, we will be in an active drive to carry out the key points of each pillar and region.
How vital is an association’s role in transforming the cargo sector?
Any association can play a cons-tructive role by its participation, and collaboration with other stakeholders. A trade body must be matched with its issue-resolving capacity and hand holding of its members. It must advocate the industry pain points to the authorities and ensure there is lot of internal deliberations done, as many key points that need to be resolved, are within the stakeholders.
