As part of their ongoing efforts to promote a culture of collaborative innovation in the port sector, the National Ports Agency (ANP) and the PORTNET National Single Window in partnership with the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation and stakeholders in the port community announce the launch of the first edition of the Hackathon Smart Port Challenge 2020 from December 18 to January 29, 2020, an international virtual competition of innovation and co-creation open to any person, company, school or university wishing to propose an innovative concept in response to the operational challenges constituting the said Hackathon.

Resulting from a unique public-private partnership, Smart Port Challenge aims to support breakthrough initiatives for transit facilitation and improved port performance through concrete and innovative solutions to major port operational challenges at national, regional and international levels. It will call on all experts in the sector, researchers, startups, companies and students to try to find creative answers to the current challenges of developing tomorrow’s smart ports on the various facets related to sustainable development, energy transition, logistics performance, trade facilitation, continuity of port services and the resilience of the port tool.

Nadia LARAKI, Managing Director of the National Ports Agency and President of the Board of Management of PORTNET SA

« Like all other sectors and industries, the logistics and port sector, on a global scale, has undergone major changes in recent years, driven by containerization, ship size, accelerated technological development, innovation and e-commerce. These innovations have a definite impact on the development of ports and terminals and lead to major changes every day in working conditions and methods of collective collaboration,

In addition, the health crisis linked to Covid-19 accelerated these changes already underway and allowed, in a very short time, the change of a multitude of paradigms. It demonstrated once again that digital technology is a real vector of solidarity, efficiency and flexibility in times of instability.

In Morocco and more particularly within the ANP and the port community, we have fortunately become aware in an anticipated and proactive way of the importance of this lever through the establishment of a community electronic platform allowing :

1. Easy collective digital collaboration to meet our daily challenges.
2. A smooth exchange of data and documents between the different public and private actors involved in the port import and export logistics chain.

The innovation initiative launched by the ANP in collaboration with the entire port community, in particular through the organization of the first edition of the Hackathon Smart Port Challenge, is a real opportunity and a favorable framework for the consolidation of our innovation ecosystem in the port sector. »

Philippe Isler, Director of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, said :

“The Alliance is delighted to work with ANP and Portnet on this opportunity to harness collective knowledge to address the challenges facing Morocco’s ports. The implementation of leading-edge solutions in ports, such as automation and digitization, is necessary to facilitate trade and support inclusive economic growth. We look forward to supporting this event with our expertise in trade facilitation and innovation, and to discover the innovative solutions that will be offered. We wish the participants good luck”.