As an important part of the supply chain, optimisation of port management is crucial to upscale operational efficiency and trading capacities. ASEAN has continuously been the number one trading partner with China since December 2020. Along many ASEAN developing countries’ trading experiences with China and their other trading partners, the need bring further innovation on the technical and procedural management of ports has become more and more significant to ensure their port productivity and support the resilience of the trading ties.
Therefore, on 28-30 September, GIZ “Support of Regional Economic Cooperation in Asia” (SRECA) Project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), cooperates with the Office of Planning, Development and Management of Beibu Gulf Economic Zone (BG Office) of Guangxi Autonomous Region facilitated an online training to support port authorities (from the ministries of trade and transportation, chambers of industry and commerceas well as other port planning offices) and senior staff from ports and logistics service providers from Cambodia and Vietnam to delve into the practices of smart ports and advanced port management in Germany and China.
This is the third time SRECA and the BG Office cooperate to organise “China-ASEAN Port City Cooperation Network International Training” after one physical training in 2019 and one online training in 2021. Around 25 participants from the public and private sectors of Cambodia and Vietnam joined in the training.
From the German side, experts from Bremen Ports delved into the following key topics:
- Methods to understand the needs of ports: research / surveying methods, agile management (e.g. design thinking or rapid prototyping) to improve decision making;
- Change management capabilities for port operators to strengthen implementation of digital tools;
- Good practices and practical examples of smart port development in China and Germany (cross-cutting topic).
From the Chinese side, experts from China Waterborne Transport Research Institute, Ministry of Transport, China’s local customs, andThe Central Committee of Jiusan Society introduced into the following key topics:
- The Application of Smart port: with technologies incl. AGV, 5G, blockchain;
- Chinese policies of container shipping during Covid-19 Pandemic;
- Chinese policies of container shipping during Covid-19 Pandemic.
Looking into the future, the participants suggest that GIZ and the BG Office can continue to organise trainings on the operational procedures in ports, specifically, to focus on increasing logistics efficiencies on the shop-floor, to include topics like smart technologies’ influence on the flow of exported and imported goods, and the technologies of port forwarding.