IMO and Singapore to offer pilot SWiFT Project to medium-sized port

IAPH supports this next step in capacity building following global port FAL survey and joint report with World Bank on accelerating digitalization in the maritime transport chain

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has issued a call for expressions of interest from countries with a medium-sized port to take part in a pilot project to establish an efficient digitalized system for electronic exchange of information in ports for ship clearance. The pilot will be supported by IMO member state Singapore via in-kind contributions by the IMO via its Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme (ITCP).

Under the pilot project, the selected country will be advised on the necessary legal, policy and institutional requirements for the Maritime Single Window (MSW )system. The port will then be provided with functional MSW software, hardware and/or IT services, configured to the country's needs. Training will also be provided.

IAPH Managing Director Dr. Patrick Verhoeven commented:

“This excellent news means a kickstart to the third element of our joint industry call to action last June, namely to strive for the introduction of Port Community Systems and secure data exchange platforms in the main ports of all Member States represented in the International Maritime Organization.”

The first element of the same call to action - assessing the state of implementation of the IMO FAL requirement in ship-shore data exchange - was completed following an in-depth IAPH survey of over a hundred world ports. The survey revealed that a third of the respondents had electronic data exchange systems operation, with a third in design or development and another third yet to commence the digital journey. In collaboration with the World Bank, IAPH has developed a guidance for ports looking to accelerate digitalization in a joint paper that was published in January.

IAPH’s Technical Data Collaboration Committee (DCC) Chair Pascal Ollivier commented:

“the second element of our industry call to action is an equally important factor. That is to ensure harmonisation of data standards through use of the supply chain standards of the International Standardization Organization, the standards of the International Hydrographic Organization as well as the IMO Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business.”

In this respect, the public and private sector has responded positively by accepting the recent invitation by IAPH and a number of other leading maritime NGOs to do just that. It puts forward the proposal to co-create a single- and neutral- supporting technical standard under ISO Technical Committee 8 for administrative and operational data, which has so far been accepted by numerous key industry players.

Singapore has successfully implemented its national Maritime Single Window digitalPORT@SG™. As per the recent IMO announcement, Singapore will bring in its experience to cater to the technical requirements for medium-size ports and for ports that would like to incorporate port to port communication protocols in such a system.