I’m a big fan of the open mind, particularly because it helps getting things done. And while the biggest of all open minds are exploring space looking for resources and what not, I’m here today to explore some ideas with you and I hope you’re coming with an open mind.
Bangladesh has been on this crusade of digitizing itself for a while now, and while we’re at it I believe we owe it to our port authorities to help them transition into smarter authorities who would require much lesser time to process shipments. We now live in a world where Smart Digital Ports of the Future is no longer in the future, but the present. Despite holding positions in the lower quarter and half of the top hundred ports in the world in terms of total cargo volume and container traffic, the sea ports of Bangladesh are very busy, and can use smart technologies to improve to amazing levels of efficiency, especially given that the first deep sea port (Matarbari, Cox’s Bazaar) is finally under development.
While in the rest of the world, mainly in Europe, beginning with the growth of cloud connectivity to the soaring use of drones to monitor terminal operations, 2019 has been a year of genuinely high-tech progress in the ports and terminals industry. The swift progressions in tech have made it possible to work towards a smart ecosystem – of which seaports will be essential – where supply chain data flows without a glitch.
Terms like 5G, IoT, IoV etc. aren’t alien to Bangladesh anymore, but initiatives are required at this very moment from our government, our enormous pool of IT professionals, and foreign collaborators to introduce these technologies into our port systems which clearly deserves an upgrade to support traders better.
The Writer is the CEO of Galaxie AG and Global Advisor, Global Chamber Chittagong
