Gateway Seaport ICT System Study Tour

OCT 2019 | China

Port IT platform is recognized as a key anchor of modern port development.  It helps enhance port efficiency, safety and cost reduction to a new level; it provides smooth and secure data exchange between ports and business partners which is vital for ports’ business growth; and bundling with mobile application it makes port services easily available to customers anywhere anytime.  Ports in China are becoming smart, and those of the largest scales are leading this cause with their advanced IT platforms and ICT operations. 

This peer-learning activity was designed and facilitated by a World Bank task team led by Hua Tan, as a knowledge sharing and capacity building opportunity for clients from project management entities of World Bank loan financed Three Gorges Modern Logistics Center Infrastructure Project (P153473), and Hubei Xiaogan Logistics Infrastructure Improvement Project (P132562) in China.  The activity comprised a 1.5-day training on port digitalization and ICT development, followed by a 3-day study tour to gateway ports in Nanjing, Ningbo and Shanghai.  It was participated by a group 30+ people including port operations staff from Yichang and Xiaogan PMOs, experts from national waterborne research institute, and project management and IT platform development consultants.  

The participants acquired systematic understanding of why, what and how to develop port ICT from the training. The study tour to the China’s most advanced ports in the Yangtze-River Delta offered real-world impression and experience with the operation models and practices in digital port and associated logistics facilities.

An important finding is that experience and lessons learned from advanced ports in China are readily transferrable to peers with limited knowledge and capacity, i.e. Yichang.  The opportunity lies with top-level design as a first step, including strategic positioning and competitive advantage analysis, and then collaboration with advanced ports to make the best use of standard modules of port IT platform and cloud-based solutions and thus to focus on digital applications rather than heavy investment in IT infrastructure. 

Key takeaways by PMOs participants are expected to inform the planning and design of port IT platforms in Yichang and Xiaogan. Moreover, the activity has bridged peer ports in China who will continue to benefit from the new partnership in forms of knowledge exchange and other collaborations in the longer run.