The world’s first trade and logistics loyalty programme was in South Africa last week to encourage more South African businesses and special economic zones to sign up.
Established in 2020, the World Logistics Passport (WLP), by the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the initiative seeks to create a global network of partners and members to make the shipping of freight by sea, air or land more effective, cheaper and less time consuming.
South Africa was the second country to join the WLP as a hub, through the port of Durban.
Today, two years later, the WLP has extended to 27 hubs in 48 countries. South Africa itself has 10 members, with the 11th, the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GDDA), signing a memorandum of understanding with WLP at a function in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening.
The purpose of the WLP, said general manager Mahmood Al Bastaki, was to eradicate industry freight and trade bottlenecks wherever they occured to increase trade and stimulate the flow of cargo, with a direct benefit to the economies where the trade took place.
Since the implementation of the WLP, DPWorld and Emirates Sky Cargo together have boosted trade to Dubai by $2 billion, said WLP head Adbulrahman Bin Haider.
The WLP has found that participants in the programme have seen trade boosted by 40% and enjoyed savings of up to 48 hours per shipment, and 52% of costs in some instances.
But the biggest opportunity, said Al Bastaki, was to open up foreign trade.
“The aspiration is that someone in South Africa can deal with a trader in Brazil or Colombia, or Vietnam and Indonesia. If you ask someone why they aren’t exporting there, the answer will be, ‘I don’t know anybody’, I don’t trust anybody’. It’s a big mess, this uncertainty, which the WLP addresses by providing certainty, confidence and outreach.”
One of the key aspects of international trade and freight, he said, was that there could not be a one-solution-fits-all approach, because every country was different, with their own regulations and every commodity had its own unique challenges.
“We are here to learn more about South Africa. Logistic pain points differ from country to country and commodity to commodity, which is why we go out to customise our solutions for the clients. Part of this could involve making the technology that has been designed by DPWorld to create digital transparent solutions for releasing freight through customs.”
“Customs is supposed to be a trade facilitator not a trade suffocater. Often it is the latter because of human intervention, delays and corruption. WLP makes its transparent and automated by providing digital solutions.”
The UAE, he said, had done a magnificent job of transforming itself from a desert to a modern metropolitan society in 50 years.
Some might think of the country of having the highest skyscrapers and towers in the world, but what the UAE actually had become, he said, was a by-word for compliance, international trade, security, safety, global confidence, real estate and now trade and logistics.
“Dubai is coming to you with its arms wide open with its experience. We know trade and logistics very well - we are ranked among the top by the World Bank and the global indexes of doing business and we want to do business with South Africa.
“The WLP team have been around the world, we can tell you about the experiences we have gained in London, Vancouver or Thailand and the logistics pain we have studied and what we can do to remove that, we can help you.”
Talking about economics and economies was one thing, he said, but trade was what drove economies. The WLP was about increasing the bottom line for its partners and members.
“That’s the end goal, otherwise it’s a waste of time. It has to be something that makes a difference and adds value.
The lesson of the pandemic, he said, was that alliances were critical.
“There’s no better time than now to create an unprecedented trade alliance between the UAE and South Africa. You are well positioned in your area and we are well positioned in our area, we can be hubs for one another, we can help each other connect to the rest of the world.”
BUSINESS REPORT