As part of their ongoing efforts to promote a culture of collaborative innovation in the port sector, the National Ports Agency (ANP) and the PORTNET National Single Window in partnership with the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation and stakeholders in the port community announce the launch of the first edition of the Hackathon Smart Port Challenge 2020 from December 18 to January 29, 2020, an international virtual competition of innovation and co-creation open to any person, company, school or university wishing to propose an innovative concept in response to the operational challenges constituting the said Hackathon.
Resulting from a unique public-private partnership, Smart Port Challenge aims to support breakthrough initiatives for transit facilitation and improved port performance through concrete and innovative solutions to major port operational challenges at national, regional and international levels. It will call on all experts in the sector, researchers, startups, companies and students to try to find creative answers to the current challenges of developing tomorrow’s smart ports on the various facets related to sustainable development, energy transition, logistics performance, trade facilitation, continuity of port services and the resilience of the port tool.
Nadia LARAKI, Managing Director of the National Ports Agency and President of the Board of Management of PORTNET SA
« Like all other sectors and industries, the logistics and port sector, on a global scale, has undergone major changes in recent years, driven by containerization, ship size, accelerated technological development, innovation and e-commerce. These innovations have a definite impact on the development of ports and terminals and lead to major changes every day in working conditions and methods of collective collaboration,
In addition, the health crisis linked to Covid-19 accelerated these changes already underway and allowed, in a very short time, the change of a multitude of paradigms. It demonstrated once again that digital technology is a real vector of solidarity, efficiency and flexibility in times of instability.
In Morocco and more particularly within the ANP and the port community, we have fortunately become aware in an anticipated and proactive way of the importance of this lever through the establishment of a community electronic platform allowing :
- Easy collective digital collaboration to meet our daily challenges.
- A smooth exchange of data and documents between the different public and private actors involved in the port import and export logistics chain.
The innovation initiative launched by the ANP in collaboration with the entire port community, in particular through the organization of the first edition of the Hackathon Smart Port Challenge, is a real opportunity and a favorable framework for the consolidation of our innovation ecosystem in the port sector. »
Philippe Isler, Director of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, said :
“The Alliance is delighted to work with ANP and Portnet on this opportunity to harness collective knowledge to address the challenges facing Morocco’s ports. The implementation of leading-edge solutions in ports, such as automation and digitization, is necessary to facilitate trade and support inclusive economic growth. We look forward to supporting this event with our expertise in trade facilitation and innovation, and to discover the innovative solutions that will be offered. We wish the participants good luck”.
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National Ports Agency of Morocco (ANP)
The National Ports Agency (ANP) is the regulatory authority for Morocco’s port system established by Law 15-02.
In a context of increasing globalization, marked by the intensification of trade and in an increasingly competitive environment, the port sector, in Morocco and worldwide, has become a lever for the development and competitiveness of a country. At the same time, it responds to new social, societal and environmental challenges.
A key player in the Moroccan port landscape, the Agency federates the port community around common objectives, it works to create a competitive port environment, promoting fair and sustainable development, characterized by healthy competition, efficiency, transparency and good governance, and ensuring safe and quality services.
The National Ports Agency is a “Public Establishment with legal personality and financial autonomy”, under the supervision of the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water.
The Agency exercises its powers over all ports of the Kingdom except the port of Tangier Mediterranean (34 ports).
Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation
The Global Facilitation Alliance for Trade Facilitation is a public-private partnership dedicated to the facilitation of international trade.
We are jointly led by the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Economic Forum and the Center for International Private Enterprise, in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Uniquely positioned to facilitate public-private dialogue, our four organizations combine commercial and political networks around the world with proven project implementation expertise.
The Alliance is funded by the governments of the United States, Canada, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Australia.
PortNet
The PortNet Single Window is a tool at the service of the competitiveness of the national economy and international trade operators. Its specificity lies in the fact that it is a system open to all companies and targets all procedures that may be of interest to the economic operator and serve its competitiveness. It has been generalized to all commercial ports managed by the National Ports Agency (ANP) as well as to other foreign trade processes in all its airport, regalian, logistic and financial components.
To date, PORTNET S.A. has more than 50,000 users and 120 online services, a figure that will continue to grow and whose ultimate goal is the simplification, dematerialization and digitization of the international trade chain from end to end.
In addition to improving competitiveness, the deployment of such a service has come to meet the needs of good governance and economic development. The benefits are visible in Morocco which has gained from 2012 to today 42 places in the Doing Business on the axis “cross-border trade”. The aim is to provide adequate solutions to the various problems while satisfying the expectations of public and private stakeholders operating in the port ecosystem.