Technology holds the key to achieving sustainable long-term development of the ports business in today’s digitised world, said a senior DP World executive.

DP World is proactively pursuing this strategy at its facilities, said Mohammed Al Muallem, senior vice president and managing director, DP World UAE Region.

His remarks came during a week in which two separate groups of academics and business students toured Jebel Ali Port and met DP World officials.

A team of professors and entrepreneur scholars (E-Scholars) from the University of Portland’s renowned Center for Entrepreneurship called on Al Muallem, while another group from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business was received by Rashed Ali Al Qahtani, chief operating officer, DP World UAE Region.

The 30-member USC team included six students who presented a project they had done on DP World UAE Region as part of their MBA programme, “Digital Strategies for Sustainability in Global Emerging Markets”.

The visiting delegations were given presentations on the technology-driven initiatives implemented at Jebel Ali Port, like Gate Automation, Operation Control Room to track every movement in the port, smart stacking systems and the e-services.

Al Muallem said: “The innovations we have in place in Jebel Ali Port have yielded measurable operational efficiencies. In the past year, yard and quayside productivity has increased significantly while unproductive moves have in turn been noticeably reduced. These initiatives are designed to introduce better economies for the supply chain and improve traffic flow. Together they save our customers hours of precious time and labour costs. Digital technology has become indispensable for sustainable business strategies.” – ME NewsWire