New shipping lines, and procedures for business continuity
“Customs” and "Ports" Initiatives enhance the Kingdom’s position on the global maritime transport map
The workshop "Ports Initiatives for the Development of the Maritime Private Sector" emphasized a number of positives and results achieved by the Saudi ports and their activities during the pandemic period, such as increasing the number of shipping lines and activating many initiatives aimed at enhancing the position of these ports in the global economic movement. Achieving a high rate of continuity during the Corona pandemic period.
The workshop, which was organized by the Asharqia Chamber represented by the Logistics Committee on Tuesday 9 June 2020, hosted both the General Manager of Business Development at the General Authority for Ports Abdullah Al-Muneef, the superintendent of the Private Sector Administration of the Trade Facilitation Agency at the Customs Authority Hassan Al-Suhaibani, and a representative of the Saudi Company for Electronic Information Exchange (Exchange) Muhannad Al-Mutairi, and the meeting was moderated by the head of the Chamber's logistics committee, Rakan Al-Ataishan.
In the first paragraph of the workshop, Abdullah Al-Munif reviewed the most prominent initiatives that were launched during the pandemic period, the most prominent of which was postponing payments due to ports from wages for a period of 90 days, extending the period of goods exemption from storage floor wages in the ports to 10 days instead of 5 days, and holding several virtual workshops During the month of May 2020 with the shipping and loyal agents, operators and government agencies, the companies convert to electronic payment, in addition to postponing the collection of truck reservation fees, ensuring business continuity and preparing all technical requirements for employees to work remotely.
Among the initiatives that Al-Manif tackled is that the authority, in cooperation with all concerned bodies (governmental and private), has monitored 45 types of challenges facing port beneficiaries from private companies, and work is being done to activate them, stressing that all these initiatives came to develop business in the sector Maritime, and to continue and to make Saudi ports at the forefront of global ports.
Al-Munif said that the Kingdom’s ports during the pandemic period achieved many achievements, including the start of the actual operation of the largest bond contracts in Jeddah Islamic Port, with investments worth 9 billion riyals, as the capacity of container terminals in the port will be increased by 70%, to reach more than 13 million containers annually. Especially the infrastructure has been updated.
Another achievement, according to Al-Muneef, is the launch of two new shipping lines between the first kingdom with "East Africa", and the second with "East Asia", and each of them aims to: facilitate and accelerate import and export operations, increase handling volumes in Saudi ports, and enhance the competitiveness of Saudi port services And the development of its operations .. except that the first aims to enhance the movement of exports and imports to and from Yanbu, and the second aims to achieve this, but to and from Dammam and Jubail.
He mentioned that the largest single allocation contract had been signed remotely in the Kingdom at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam with an investment of 7 billion riyals, and raising the capacity of container terminals in the port by 120% to reach the number of containers to more than 7.5 million containers annually, to also contribute to providing more than 4000 Function.
He stressed that the General Ports Authority is working to develop the list of shipping agents in order to reduce visits to agents by 60 percent to pay insurance or pay dues, not to reserve cash amounts outside the economy, increase electronic efficiency and unify payment with a unified number for transparency, attract the investor, and achieve more of Transparency in transactions .. hinting that the most prominent expected changes that are being worked on in the list are the setting of working hours for agents' yards to receive and deliver containers, the initiative to cancel insurance, setting working hours for agents and counter, activating immediate payment, in order to preserve the rights of all dealers and speedy completion of procedures in ports Reducing the costs of the logistics sector.
For this part, Hassan Sahibani spoke about the initiatives of the General Customs Authority during this period, the most prominent of which is the postponement of the collection of customs duties, for a period of 30 days, from the date of clearance through the path of bank guarantee and approval of institutional approval (documentary commitment), with the aim of mitigating potential economic impacts on the private sector during these The period is by providing financial liquidity, and the initiative began to be applied from 22/22 to June / June, and its value amounted to 443 million riyals, and the financial impact will be announced after the end of the initiative where importers can use the guarantee more than once.
He mentioned that the General Authority of Customs has undertaken many initiatives aimed at facilitating customs clearance procedures for maritime transport companies such as permitting the movement of prohibited goods in ports, canceling the requirement of customs and border guards approval, and the approval of the Ministry of Health to issue a permit to leave the ship and set up a remote workshop to educate investors about this
Muhannad Al-Mutairi (the company of the Saudi Company for Electronic Information Exchange / Exchange) said, "The Fasah platform provides many services, including the implementation of the initiatives launched by the" ports "and" customs "during the Corona business continuity pandemic,Pointing out that the most prominent services that supported business continuity in the past period were the "Fassah B" service, which contributed to supporting the ports initiative for the electronic transformation of the process of exchanging payments for invoices with agents and operators and facilitating the electronic payment process, in addition to launching the "trucking dates" service that Some of the documentary procedures facilitated the entry process, adding that the initiatives that launched "customs" contributed to linking the operators in managing customs operations electronically with port operators to reduce paper practices, speed up work, and speed up the clearance of shipments during the last period.
