On Tuesday, the World Bank Group held an internal webinar ‘Port Community Systems – Facilitating trade in the 21st Century’ to promote the recently-published report jointly developed by the Bank with IAPH. Mona Haddad, global director (trade, investment and competitiveness) and Nicolas Peltier-Thiberge (global director, transport) provided opening remarks from the World Bank on the role of Port Community Systems (PCS) in the context of trade facilitation and supply chain resilience. IAPH managing director Patrick Verhoeven emphasised that trust between stakeholders and political commitment were proven key success factors in a well-implemented PCS. Report co-author and senior trade facilitation specialist Satya Prasad Sahu summarised the report and senior private sector specialist Perikilis Saragiotis explained the main benefits of a PCS to a developing country. Key case studies were provided by Dwain Powell, PCS director and vice president at IAPH member Port Authority of Jamaica and by Iwan van der Wolf, CEO at Dutch associate member Portbase. Sebastien Dessus (practice manager, trade) provided closing remarks. The session was moderated by Jan Hoffmann of UNCTAD, who will join the World Bank in Washington next year. Readers can find the World Bank report here.
