The Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try yes­ter­day ex­e­cut­ed a con­tract with the French com­pa­ny, SO­GET, for the pro­vi­sion of con­sult­ing ser­vices for the im­ple­men­ta­tion, main­te­nance and sup­port of a Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a news re­lease, the Min­istry of Trade said SO­GET is a lead­ing Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem (PCS) op­er­a­tor in France and a glob­al leader in the de­vel­op­ment of Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tems.

The Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem is an elec­tron­ic plat­form that con­nects the bor­der clear­ance IT sys­tems used by the Cus­toms, the ports, the TTBi­zLink plat­form op­er­at­ed by the Min­istry of Trade and oth­er bor­der clear­ance agen­cies.

Per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try, Ayleen Al­leyne-Ovid signed the con­tract on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go and SO­GET’s CEO, Herve Cornede, signed on be­half of the com­pa­ny.

The con­tract amount is US$9.8 mil­lion. The PCS project is es­ti­mat­ed to be im­ple­ment­ed over the course of 24 months at the ma­jor air and sea ports and will en­hance Trinidad and To­ba­go’s trade ef­fi­cien­cy and port lo­gis­tics.

A PCS is a neu­tral elec­tron­ic plat­form that con­nects the bor­der clear­ance IT sys­tems used by var­i­ous stake­hold­ers such as ASY­CU­DA used by the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion, NAVIS used by the Ports and TTBi­zLink plat­form utilised by the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try and oth­er bor­der clear­ance agen­cies.

The PCS will fa­cil­i­tate the in­tel­li­gent and se­cure ex­change of in­for­ma­tion along the sup­ply chain and will al­low for au­toma­tion, man­age­ment and op­ti­mi­sa­tion of port lo­gis­tics process­es through the sin­gle sub­mis­sion of da­ta.

The PCS will help to in­crease speed, pre­dictabil­i­ty and re­li­a­bil­i­ty in process­es at the ports of en­try and ex­it and re­duce cost for the clear­ance, move­ment and stor­age of goods.

Some of the key mod­ules to be im­ple­ment­ed un­der this con­tract are the Man­age­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Func­tion­al­i­ty Mod­ule, the Mar­itime Trans­port Mod­ule, Port Op­er­a­tions Func­tion­al­i­ty Mod­ule and the Road Trans­port Mod­ule.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the PCS will in­crease trans­paren­cy and trace­abil­i­ty in the clear­ance, move­ment and stor­age of goods across the sup­ply chain.

The Min­istry of Trade said T&T’s Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem will ush­er in a new era of trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion, au­toma­tion, and sup­ply chain op­ti­mi­sa­tion. Stake­hold­ers for this project in­clude the port au­thor­i­ties, in­ter­na­tion­al ship­ping lines, freight for­warders, cus­toms bro­kers, hauliers, im­porters and ex­porters do­ing busi­ness in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

By stream­lin­ing process­es and min­imis­ing in­ef­fi­cien­cies, the PCS will sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duce lead times, mit­i­gate bot­tle­necks, and en­hance the at­trac­tive­ness of the lo­cal ports.

Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try Paula Gopee-Scoon ex­pressed en­thu­si­asm for the trans­for­ma­tive im­pact the Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem will have on Trinidad and To­ba­go. She ac­knowl­edged the sup­port and co­op­er­a­tion re­quired from all stake­hold­ers. To en­sure the suc­cess of this project, train­ing pro­grammes, work­shops, and ex­ten­sive sup­port will be pro­vid­ed to fa­mil­iarise users with the sys­tem and max­imise its util­i­sa­tion.

The Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try said it re­mained com­mit­ted to ad­vanc­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion ca­pa­bil­i­ties and pro­mot­ing eco­nom­ic growth, adding that the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem rep­re­sents an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant step to­ward achiev­ing these ob­jec­tives.

The Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try re­mains com­mit­ted to ad­vanc­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion ca­pa­bil­i­ties and pro­mot­ing eco­nom­ic growth. The im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Port Com­mu­ni­ty Sys­tem rep­re­sents an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant step to­ward achiev­ing these ob­jec­tives.