IAPH focus: closing the gaps

Against a background of port systems and supply chains under immense pressure during the onslaught of COVID-19, the International Association of Ports & Harbors (IAPH) has recently released a new report, Closing the Gaps, which highlights actions that should be considered in conjunction with the key themes of resilience, digitalisation and decarbonisation as a path to curing system inefficiencies and delivering a stronger and generally more efficient port system and supply chain.

The 80+pp report finds its origins in IAPH’s 2021 Conference and its conclusions represent the output of eight regional workshops held early in 2022, attended by diverse players in the supply chain right through from bankers and academics operating in support functions to front-line entities such as shipping agencies and terminal operators. The report was prepared in collaboration with the World Bank and as it states in its foreword it is designed to act as an action plan via which key problem areas can be resolved and a more resilient supply chain overall brought into play.

The character of the Closing the Gaps report is that it is essentially big picture and big issue focused, albeit that its recommendations come out of the regional meetings that undoubtedly went into some detail from the standpoint of key industry participants. In this context, actions to “close the gap” are identified together with the strategic objective of working in partnership with the IMO, UN agencies, other industry bodies, port agencies and its ow membership to bring about positive change.

Under the heading of Resilience, the port identifies key challenges that emerged in the full-blooded Covid era: lack of adequate infrastructure, poor intermodal connectivity, the need to accelerate cargo shift from road to rail or waterway and so on. The solutions presented to these and other problems are comprehensive, stretching from improved transparency with data and the revision by ports of their land investment portfolios to accommodate greater partnership opportunities with the private sector through to the improved synchronisation of activities between industry players and a change of mindset to think more in a supply chain context.

In the area of digitalisation Closing the Gaps notes the challenge that some parties face in reaching the first stage of the digitalisation of ship-to-shore FAL requirements and to get onboard with port community processes. Equally, there are issues around applying the same data standards and lack of cooperation. Solutions to these and other common problems are set out over four detailed pages.

The section of the report on decarbonisation follows a similar path – detailed identification of key problems and immediately following these discussion of workable solutions – regretfully there is not sufficient space to go into detail regarding this subject area.

The report, Closing the Gaps, is undoubtedly a well thought out and useful document in the context of both shaping policy and implementing practical measures. It is not an exaggeration to say it offers something to everyone involved in ports and logistics – in itself it goes a long way towards closing a long-standing information gap, realising another important goal.