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29 March 2024

Dubai Trade’s forum for freight forwarders

Published
By Staff

Dubai Trade FZE, the leading trade facilitator under Dubai World, has organised the Freight Forwarders Forum as part of the “Facilitating Trade through Dubai” initiative in collaboration with Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) and the National Association of Freight and Logistics (NAFL) to enhance direct communication with the trading community.

Freight Forwarders Forum, which was held recently at the Address Marina Hotel with participation of more than 150 representatives from forwarding companies across the UAE, aims to create a permanent and effective platform for Dubai Trade to receive feedback and find solutions to any relevant issues the trading community may have, as well as to communicate current improvements and future projects undertaken by Dubai Trade.

Dubai Trade, which is responsible for facilitating and speeding up customs and cargo handling procedures by transforming them into e-services that are shared by the concerned government entities and the trading community in a single window, seeks continuous interaction with all stakeholders for further improvement and wider adoption of its e-services. These e-services have already contributed to huge benefits for all stakeholders in time, effort and money.

The half-day Open Forum, which was attended by DP World officials, included a panel discussion and presentations made by Mahmood Al Bastaki, CEO of Dubai Trade; David Philips, President of NAFL; and Ahmed Salah, Regional Cargo Manager at IATA.

Mahmood Al Bastaki, CEO, Dubai Trade, said: “Freight forwarders are a very important part of the trade chain via the UAE as they are responsible for more than 60 per cent of logistics revenues in the country. This initiative today seeks not only to serve them, but to directly serve their clients and ensure that their operations over our digital platform are completely trouble-free.

Our final success in migrating the majority of the trading activities across borders into a digital platform will be measured by the rise of the UAE to the top world position in international trade – which is not far in future.”

Al Bastaki added that following high turnout of participants at the event and their overwhelmingly positive feedback, Dubai Trade was considering organizing similar forums in future targeting various segments of the UAE trading community.

Adil Al Zarooni, Senior Vice President, Global Sales – EZW, parent company of Jafza said: “As home to thousands of trading companies and over 140 of the world’s leading logistics service providers, Jafza is keen to exploit all available channels to create synergy among various members of the trading community. We all seek the same goal, which equally benefits stakeholders and the UAE economy.”

David Philips President of NAFL said: “NAFL, which is the official representatives of FIATA in the UAE, with close to 300 members, plays a vital role in ensuring the UAE retains its prominent spot, as an efficient logistics hub.

“With the help of our Board and the Advisory Council, alongside the excellent support from the various stakeholders and authorities, we are able to table and resolve issues that feed into making the UAE a truly global logistics hub.”