Under the directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, the World Logistics Passport, a major Dubai initiative to boost South-South trade, was launched in Davos in the presence of government leaders and heads of major corporations from Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The World Logistics Passport links Customs World, DP World, and Emirates Group to enhance connectivity through Dubai and, through expertise sharing and process development directly between partner countries. A pilot project operational since July 2019 has already increased trade by participants by 10 percent.
The World Logistics Passport has been designed to overcome non-tariff trade barriers such as logistics inefficiency that currently limit the growth of trade between developing markets.
South-South trade is already worth an estimated US$ 4.28 trillion annually, more than half of total developing countries’ exports in 2018, according to the WTO.
However, many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa have much smaller market shares in key export products in each other’s markets compared to their shares in developed countries, indicating the potential for further substantial growth, boosting prosperity.
Designed as a points loyalty scheme, the initiative has been set up to incentivise companies and traders to use Dubai’s world-leading logistics facilities in return for cost and time savings and enhanced customs
learances.
Not only will this increase the ease of moving goods in Dubai, it will also foster more optimal direct trade routes between Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Globally, the World Logistics Passport will enable partner countries to leverage the expertise of Dubai’s institutions, such as DP World’s existing global logistics network of ports and economic parks, Emirates Group’s worldwide Dnata and SkyCargo network, and Dubai’s expertise in Customs and trade governance.
As a result, these partner countries will be able to improve their own processes and capability to improve security, transparency and ease of moving goods, thus transforming them into global trade hubs.
More than 60 global policymakers from countries including Ethiopia, India, South Africa, Brazil, Angola, Indonesia, Colombia and China contributed to the session. ■