JANUARY 2017 ABOUT THE AUTHORS NADIA HAFSI, PortNet in Morocco: Communication and Change Management Manager of PORTNET S.A., has 10 years’ Creating a Strategic Alliance between Port and Foreign Trade Communities for a experience in the maritime, shipping, and foreign trade sectors and is a founding member and Secretary General of the Moroccan branch of the Women’s International Shipping Competitive Economic Operator and Trading Association. She began her career with Maersk In 2008, Morocco’s National Ports Agency launched a project to create Line before joining the PortNet project in 2010. a national single-window platform for Morocco’s foreign trade. The process was long and difficult, and its success is owing in large part to APPROVING MANAGER the leadership and focus demonstrated by PORTNET S.A., the company Jalal Benhayoun, General Manager, PORTNET S.A. created in 2012 to be in charge of the project. The SmartLesson below describes the steps PORTNET took to forge a strategic alliance between public and private stakeholders in Morocco to achieve a common, mutually beneficial aim: streamline Morocco’s foreign trade procedures and improve its business climate. BACKGROUND • Accelerate cross-border transit of import and export goods; Morocco’s National Port Authority (ANP) created PortNet as a port com- • Establish a propitious environ- ment for the competitiveness of munity system1 with a mandate to economic operators with the op- bring all relevant stakeholders togeth- portunity to work on a just-in- er. Since its creation in 2012, PORTNET time basis; S.A.2 has had responsibility for the implementation of a national single • Reduce uncertainty of processing window to facilitate all port and trade time and logistics costs; procedures. Key elements of PORT- • Improve the business climate, NET’s mission are as follows: promote good governance, and increase transparency in the re- • Increase the efficiency of logistics lationship between government chains of economic operators and and businesses; public and private service provid- • Simplify and accelerate proce- ers; dures and formalities for the en- 1 A port community system is an electronic platform try or exit of goods; that connects multiple systems operated by a variety of organizations that make up a seaport or airport • Improve the traceability of opera- community. It is shared in the sense that it is set up, tions and information flows. organized, and used by firms in the same sector—in this case, a port community. 2 S.A. = Société Anonyme, which translates as limited The PortNet platform has been opera- company. tional at Casablanca port since march SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2017 1 2011 and was extended in 2012 to all of the coun- Also, customs and control organisms involved in try’s commercial ports that are managed by the cargo inspection processes are exchanging results ANP. This move toward a paperless-port strategy of control and inspections through PortNet. Port- also applied to all other members of the port com- Net is considered a pioneer in implementing such munity: the National Ports Agency, Customs Au- processes. It also counts more than 26,600 users, thority, Revenue Authority, customs operators, and including importers, exporters, shipping agents, handling and shipping agents. It allowed commu- customs, customs brokers, and banks. nication and exchange of various documents and information3 electronically between all players via a single channel. KEY LESSONS Lesson 1: Ensure a strategic alliance. In the first phase of its operationalization, PortNet significantly contributed to the decrease in delays PORTNET is the result of the strategic alliance be- and in transit time and costs with its move toward tween port and foreign trade communities. It is a a paperless environment, simplification of proce- successful model for the national partnership be- dures, and traceability offered by the use the plat- tween the public and private sectors, to work as a form. In its second phase, the deployment of Port- team to improve the business climate, and this is Net also provided the opportunity for coordinated reflected in the public-private shareholding in the joint inspections and control with various control capital of PORTNET S.A. (See Figure 1.) The parties agencies, customs inspectors, customs brokers, and should learn to trust each other and give conces- approved forwarding agents also connected to sions, if needed, in the interest of their final clients, PortNet. who are the economic operators. By end 2014, PortNet was in a third phase of its PortNet is also a major partner of the National Busi- implementation, with a national rollout to include ness Environment Committee in facilitating the im- all actors in the foreign trade community. All key plementation of the reforms via PortNet. This com- agencies such as customs, banks, the Ministry of mittee is a public-private body chaired by the head Foreign Trade, the Exchange Office, and all import- of government whose mission is to coordinate the ers were connected with PortNet, allowing import government’s strategy for improving the business declarations to be processed several weeks before environment, including foreign trade procedures. the arrival of goods. Since mid-2015, all import documents have been processed exclusively via Lesson 2: Engage in effective change PortNet, with more than 20,100 importers regis- management. tered and more than 25,900 users. PortNet has maintained effective dialogue with all By mid-2016, automation of the export license fol- concerned parties in trade facilitation, especially lowed. To extend the coverage of PortNet to the businesses. This includes organizing awareness air cargo community,4 PORTNET S.A. signed a mul- workshops on change management at the national level for thousands of operators, in collaboration tilateral agreement with the air cargo community with all stakeholders in the foreign trade commu- on May 23, 2016. During the same period, PORT- nity, as well as conducting customer-satisfaction NET S.A. started working with the community on surveys. These actions aim to enable users to learn implementing electronic payment on the PortNet quickly about the new services and features; en- platform. sure handling of essential functions, processes, and 3 Such as forecasts of vessel calls (arrival notice), requests for the operational reality to user activity, based on the us- terminal position allocation (DAP), manifest transmission in import er’s role; and reduce the load of support functions, and export, scores on unloading and loading of containers, entries scores and output terminals and the port, ship movements, container’s such as helpdesk. PORTNET has puts its customers tracking, etc. at the heart of its concerns, and for each launch of 4 Members of the air cargo community include Minister of Equipment, new modules, it engages in collaborative activities Transportation and Logistics, National Airports Authority, Customs, Moroccan Agency for the Development of Logistics, Royal Air Maroc to recruit pilot chains to ensure that the new ser- Cargo, and Confédération Générales des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM). vice perfectly matches customer expectations. 2 SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2017 Figure 1: PortNet and Its Partners ria that encourage competition among stakeholders promote efficient and low-cost trade op- erations. This advantage, how- ever, may need to be weighed against the need to protect sys- tems and their participants from participation in the system by institutions that would expose them to excessive risks. Any re- strictions on access should be objective and based on appro- priate risk criteria. All access cri- teria should be stated explicitly and disclosed to interested par- ties. With PortNet, we avoided a one-size-fits-all solution and also provided a low-cost com- munity platform (Web plat- Source: PORTNET S.A. form). PortNet offers its part- Lesson 3: Single-window governance ners and its customers’ partners arrangements should be effective, the standard protocols used for electronic data in- accountable, and transparent. terchange (EDI), whereby each party can opt for the protocol that best meets its needs and require- Governance arrangements for single-window sys- ments. (See Figure 2.) tems encompass the relationships between the sys- tem’s management and its governing body (such To integrate a partner into the PortNet system, our as a board of directors), its owners, and its other Infrastructure team plays the role of coordinator stakeholders. These arrangements provide the Figure 2: Some Protocols Supported by PortNet structure for how the system’s overall objectives are set, how they are attained, and how perfor- mance is monitored. As single-window systems have the potential to affect the wider economic community, there is a need for effective, account- able, and transparent governance, whether the system is owned and operated by the government or by the private sector. An entity must be desig- nated to be in charge of the oversight and super- vision of the single-window system. Effective and transparent governance allows for alignment of the objectives of the system with the expectations of all stakeholders in the foreign trade community. Lesson 4: A single-window system should have objective and transparent criteria for participation. The system should not be oriented to serve the interests of restricted communities. Access crite- Source: PORTNET S.A. SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2017 3 to ensure a smooth, secure, and transparent inte- Lesson 5: All foreign trade operations gration. The first step is to decide on the protocol must be traceable in terms of time and to be used, and then a series of parameters and responsibility. bilateral workshops is triggered to activate the EDI exchange as soon as possible. Once the intercon- The speed of transactions constitutes an essential nection is activated, the preliminary and functional criterion of the operation managed by the single- tests of sending/receiving messages are carried out window system. The status of each operation must in both directions. be clear and understandable by all stakeholders. The system should promptly provide the final and Once the interconnection is operational, the two irreversible status of achievement of operations. systems exchange in real time all the messages re- The system should provide a means of performing quired for the management of import/export for- operations that is practical for its users and effi- malities of foreign trade. cient for the economy. Transaction costs must be mastered, because they have a direct impact on the Another solution implemented in the PortNet plat- price structure of all goods as well as on the com- form is the Web access: the Single Window (GU)5 petitiveness of operators. on the Web. This low-cost option is available to serve economic operators (such as small businesses) In PortNet, there is real-time tracking of each oper- that do not wish to invest in an information tech- ation from its beginning/creation to its end—who nology (IT) system to exchange data with PortNet does what and when, no matter what user profile. or for users that have only few operations that do This allows an absolute transparency of operations not require an IT system. The GU offers exactly the performed in the platform. It’s also an effective same functionality as an EDI exchange between a way to empower all stakeholders and fight corrup- company IT system and the PortNet platform. The tion. Web access can also act as an alternative exchange platform in case of a communication issue with a Lesson 6: Adopt a quick-wins methodology. given partner (for example, the server is inacces- Quick wins are very important for ensuring that sible, there is a problem with sending/receiving, the stakeholders sustain their commitment to and insufficient bandwidth, and so on). Then the user support for the project. When users see the ben- only needs to connect with its profile on the GU efits of a simple implementation or modification of and proceed to the processing of the information the platform, then they become engaged and com- in a simple and effective way. mitted to make all their foreign trade operations Screenshot of PortNet Web platform GU homepage a success through PortNet. They adopt the single window as if they owned it, and they support its continuous improvement. This is what happened with PortNet since its kickoff in 2011 with the for- eign trade community. Lesson 7: Provide regular follow-up of the single window and community performance. During the project, key performance indicators of all the processes always should be available and updated, so all the stakeholders are able to iden- tify constraints and good solutions for continuous improvement of the process. Indicators for monitoring the activity and opera- tions of international trade carried out on the Source: PORTNET S.A. PortNet platform are regularly produced. These are operational and interactive dashboards and 5 GU = Guichet Unique (Single Window, in French). reportings to detect the strengths, weaknesses, 4 SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2017 Screenshot of an example of operation traceability in PortNet. Source: PORTNET S.A. delays, advancement, errors, and so on, of all the Figure 3: Dashboard Example actors involved in the foreign trade chain. These dashboards are a significant tool for improving the services rendered by PortNet and its partners, and they are produced generally on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis. They are also updated regularly. (See Figure 3.) Lesson 8: Comply with international standards and align the development of the single window with regional integration and interoperability standards. This is a goal that should be taken into consider- ation during the early stages of development of a single window. This compliance and alignment will make it easy to adopt or implement new regula- tions from national and international organiza- Source: PORTNET S.A. SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2017 5 tions such as the WTO, UN, Interna- experiences, and take into account tional Maritime Organization, and the the lessons outlined above: ensuring World Customs Organization. Such strategic alliance; effective change alignment with international stan- management; governance arrange- dards also makes it simple to ensure in- ments that are effective, accountable, teroperability and regional integration and transparent; objective and trans- between national single windows and parent criteria for participation in the between different countries. single window; traceable operations; adopting quick-wins methodology; It’s also very important to participate regular follow-up of the single win- in international events and have mem- dow and community performance; bership in national and international compliance with international stan- organizations (associations and/or fed- dards; and alignment with regional erations). This will make it easier to integration and interoperability stan- be informed at the international level dards. regarding the new standards and best practices. For instance, PORTNET S.A. For more details regarding PortNet is a member of the International Port “National Single Window for Foreign Community Systems Association and Trade”, please check: www.portnet.ma the African Alliance for E-Commerce, and we also are active participants in the UN/CEFACT6 workshops and fo- rums. And PORTNET S.A. is always a member of several Moroccan organiza- tions. CONCLUSION Developing a national single window for foreign trade shouldn’t be taken lightly. It requires teamwork, with all related stakeholders working strongly together as a community. In Morocco, thanks to the implementation of Port- Net, we have been successful in simpli- fying and automating procedures, thus reducing the time and cost to trade for DISCLAIMER economic operators. These results are SmartLessons is an awards program to share lessons learned tangible across various performance in development-oriented indicators, surveys, and reports, includ- advisory services and investment operations. The findings, ing the World Bank’s Doing Business interpretations, and conclusions Trading Across Borders indicator 2017, expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not where Morocco has risen to 63rd in necessarily reflect the views of rank from last year’s 102 among 189 IFC or its partner organizations, the Executive Directors of The economies. World Bank or the governments they represent. IFC does not assume any responsibility for the However, we must maintain our effort completeness or accuracy of the to achieve better results with continu- information contained in this document. Please see the terms ous improvement, learn from other and conditions at www.ifc.org/ smartlessons or contact the 6 UN/CEFACT = United Nations Centre for Trade program at smartlessons@ifc.org. Facilitation and Electronic Business. 6 SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2017