The Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) has launched the Port Community System (PCS), to manage all trade logistics processes.

The PCS is a single, neutral and open electronic platform which enables the secure exchange of information between public and private stakeholders in the port community.

It acts as a single window that manages all trade, logistics and business processes to improve the competitiveness of the island’s ports.

The system will be implemented through the PAJ’s newly formed unit, the Port Community System (PCS) Operator, in partnership with the Jamaica Customs Agency and the Shipping Association of Jamaica. The PCS is being implemented by SOGET SA, with oversight by the PAJ.

In his address at the launch, held at Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston on July 12, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, the Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, commended the PAJ for the initiative.

“The intervention is well timed. It will enhance the operations of the logistics activities by encouraging and promoting more efficient and effective trading practices, while at the same time increasing the velocity of decision-making and effectiveness resulting in a reduction in the cost of doing business,” he said.

The intended users of the PCS include shipping lines, terminal contractors, shipping agents, haulage contractors, terminal operators, importers and exporters.

Through the PCS, stakeholders will have 24-hour access with secure, real-time processing and distribution of information with tracking, tracing and surveillance of cargo capabilities.

Meanwhile, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the Hon. Fayval Williams, also joined Dr.  Chang in congratulating the PAJ, and urged all port community stakeholders to utilise the system.

“The benefits of what the PCS will offer, in processing and collecting documents, are more predictable and reliable information and greater revenues to allow government to provide a higher level of social services,” Mrs. Williams said.

For his part, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PAJ, Professor Gordon Shirley, said the system will greatly improve the processing time for cargo and documents for imports, exports and transhipment.

“By integrating the system and flow of information among and between members of the port community, the PCS will facilitate more efficient trade services, reduce the cost and time of completing trade transactions and enhance the image of Jamaica’s logistics environment,” he noted.

Director of the PCS Operator, Dwain Powell, told JIS News that the system will be used to modernise the operations of the island’s ports, including the former Kingston Container Terminal, whose operations have been taken over by new concessionaire Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited; the Port of Montego Bay and the Port of Ocho Rios.

“While the PCS is an electronic system, what we are really talking about is change management. We will be working with all the different businesses in the port community. We are assessing how they do business now and we are changing and modernising all of those steps,” he noted.

Mr. Powell said the preliminary cost benefit analysis predicts that the system will enable savings of approximately US$10 million annually, following its full implementation across all the island’s ports.

More than US$8 million will be invested in the project by the PAJ over the next five years.