The Unique Online Summit for Ports and Harbours Operators and Service & Technology Providers
The Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer in Environmental Protection, EITEP, seeks to promote and enable infrastructure development activities in Africa by creating networking platforms. After it identified a great need among the logistic community the Virtual Ports & Logistics Summit (VPLS) platform has been created.
Together with TEAM (Training and Education in Afrika and Middle East) and many key players in the logistic and port industry, lost opportunities for global knowledge transfer and networking will be provided.
The needs and challenges of and in the African market will be discussed and analysed.
VPLS is a tightly focused networking, business development and learning platform for the ports & logistics industry specifically designed to increase the opportunities for collaboration and networking with global and especially African key accounts
With easy networking using live chat, audio & video chat. Attendees can engage with industry specialists to create connections and get detailed, personalized insights regarding the agenda of the conference.
Extensive conference program with lectures and discussions on current challenges in day-to-day operations. (accessible from the day of the summit until one week after the summit)
(accessible from one week before the summit until one week after the summit)
Accessible from one week before the summit until one week after the summit allowing an in-depth interaction with speakers and sponsors.
(accessible from the day of the summit until one week after the summit)
Attendees receive the list of participants so you can connect with potential clients & partners and lead generations also after the summit.
Attendees have a quick feedback as each presentation is followed by an interactive live Q&A session.
Presentations will be recorded and will be available via YouTube.
The virtual Summit will feature world-class companies addressing topical experiences and challenges for African region’s needs in Ports and logistics infrastructure
Founder President of National Maritime Cluster, Tunisia
Captain Ezzeddine Kacem
Master foreign going since 1990
The major of The first promotion of the naval academy ( 1978 -1985)
Doctorate in the maritime and sea law in 1991
General manager of RADES port in 1993
The president of the court surveyors in TUNISIA since 2017
Marine court surveyor since 1994 in the tribunals of TUNISIA
Vice president of the international marine surveyors and advisers in charge of international development ( FIEM FRANCE ) since 1999
International marine arbitrator in the chambre arbitrale maritime de PARIS since 2015
Founder president of the national maritime cluster of TUNISIA since 2018.
President, EITEP - Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer in Environmental Protection, Germany
In his career, Dr. Klaus Ritter has passed through lots of important sites of the German energy and water management. As scientist he initially worked at the Aachen University of Technology and at the nuclear research centre, Jülich. Afterward he worked as general manager for professional, technical, and scientific associations of the German energy and water supply sector. Nowadays he is the president of EITEP, Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer. He develops international projects in the field of energy, water, environment, and infrastructure and is publisher of international professional journals like:
He develops international conferences like
He was engaged in various international projects that have been partly financed by bodies like GTZ, BMU, BMBF and third parties. The main target region in this context is China, where he was involved in projects dealing with questions regarding management, economic and technical solutions and integrated water resources management. During his placement as general manager of the technical and scientific associations DELIWA and DVGW he was responsible for the implementation of regulations for water, energy and gas supply and transportation.
Dr. Klaus Ritter received his diploma in civil engineering from the RWTH Aachen University. His doctor thesis was dealing with water pollution due to the discharge of cooling water.
Senior Project Consultant, HPC Hamburg Port Consulting, Germany
Having grown up predominantly in Southern Africa, Lars has a real passion and feel for the continent, dedicating most of his life towards logistics growth within the region.
He is a recognised authority in Shipping and Logistics operations with over 28 years’ industry experience globally. He has focused on leading the logistics teams in the developing world and on developing capacities in these countries, including opening country offices and growing the businesses for Multinational shipping and logistics companies in several Africa countries . He was responsible for the planning and financial development of these organisations, including developing international links and trade for the local companies.
Recently he has focused on the development of strategic plans within the middle east and African regions, as well as large an megaprojects,. Although he is now based back in Germany, his passion for the development of Africa continues to be a driving force aiming and he remains involved in the concept, study, development and implementation of turnkey out-of-the-box logistics solutions internationally.
He is extremely well versed most logistics disciplines including containers, bulk and breakbulk cargo movements as well as project logistics.
Recently he has tended to focus on development projects in Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique and Kazakhstan.
Head of Shipping Strategies, HPC Hamburg Port Consulting, Germany
Head of Maritime Strategies at HPC Hamburg Port Consulting GmbH
Visiting Professor for Maritime Economy at World Maritime University Malmö/Sweden
Martin Schramm studied International Management in Paris (MBA 1994) and Economics in Hamburg (Diploma 1997).
He started his career as a research assistant at the University of Hamburg, whre he was responsible for consultancy projects regarding micro- and macroeconomic interfaces between public and private sectors as well as studies in the fields of public finance, international and development economics. He was frequently engaged on projects giving advice to the German Government. In 2004 he earned a doctorate in economics.
Martin Schramm joined HPC in April 2004 and has specialised in privatisation, business development, financing and strategic planning. The main emphasis of his work has been project management of various privatisation projects, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, where he advises both governments and private investors. Interrelated with the aforementioned is an extensive work experience in the management of new port infrastructure development under various privatisation and business schemes. Since 2016 he is Head of Shipping Strategies.
In 2011 Martin Schramm became Visiting Professor for “Maritime Economics” at the World Maritime University Malmö.
Director Business Development, EITEP - Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer in Environmental Protection, Germany
After her studies of International Information Management (Magister Artium) at the University of Hildesheim/Germany, Rana Alnasir Boulos held diverse Business Development functions with hands-on expertise in market research, analysis and evaluating growth strategies. She is skilled with excellent communications in Arabic, French, Germany and English as well as deep intercultural competences.
She is project manager within the International Transfer Center for Infrastructure Development in Africa (ITIDA) supporting many activities across the African continent effective and sustainable economic growth.
Head of the multilateral cooperation, Department of Marine Fisheries, Morocco
Mr. Bourhim (Kingdom of Morocco) obtained his Master of Science studying Maritime Safety and Environmental Protection at the World Maritime University WMU (subsidiary OMI / IMO –Malmö- Sweden). Additionally, he has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology Geology.
He is the national coordinator of the WestMED/ BE initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the Western Mediterranean, Co-chair of the WestMED steering committee (2019-2020).
He presented a number of actions carried by the Moroccan kingdom to promote the establishment of a sustainable blue economy in the fisheries sector. Among them the HALIEUTIS Plan (2009), the creation of the National Aquaculture Development Agency in 2011 as well as the launch of the Blue Belt Initiative in 2016 to provide a collaborative and unifying platform for the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture in Africa.
Expertise in:
-the approach to integrating the gender dimension into fishing professions
-initiation of artisanal fishermen to integrated maritime projects and income generation
-the approach to control and observation of sea fishing activities.
-associated member of the national strategy for the immersion of artificial reefs
-maritime law and delimitation of maritime territories
Director of Infrastructure and Energy, African Union Commission, Ethiopia
Mr. Cheikh Bedda, Director of Infrastructure and Energy Department, joined the African Union Commission in October 2016 bringing to the position over 23 years’ experience in the infrastructure sector.
An engineer, Mr. Cheikh Bedda has headed major portfolios, worked on a wide range of high value, innovative and complex infrastructure projects and has been involved in some of the most high profile infrastructure deals in West Africa, especially in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
Prior to joining the African Union Commission, Mr. Bedda served as General Director of the Mauritanian Dairy Company and prior to that as General Director of the Energy Management Company for the Manantali and Vice-President of the West African Power Pool in Mali during which time he implemented bold policy reforms in the energy sector and pursued innovative programmes.
His earlier career saw him move progressively into key senior positions in the Public and Private sectors. He held the positions of Boat Maintenance Service (1994-1996) at SIPECHE PLC (private equity involved in processing, freezing and exporting seafood products) in Mauritania; Technical Director (1996-2002) at ITP, Mauritania; Northern Regional Manager and Lubricant Engineer (2003-2010) at Star OIL Mauritania (Private oil import and distribution company, technical partner of British Petroleum in Mauritania) in Mauritania; and General Director (20102013) at the Directorate for Refined Hydrocarbon Products at the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines of Mauritania.
A native of Mauritania, Mr. Cheikh Bedda holds a research master in Sustainable Development from Université du Maine, France and a Bsc (honours) in engineering from Ecole des Ingénieurs de la flotte Maritime, Ukraine.
Head of Transport Economics, HPC Hamburg Port Consulting, Germany
Christina Prieser is head of the competence centre transport economics at HPC Hamburg Port Consulting with a focus on business planning and privatisation. During her more than 25 years of experience in ports, shipping, and logistics, she successfully delivered over 30 market forecast and competition studies as well as more than 15 financial analyses and business cases to governments, financing institutions and private clients in the framework of container, multipurpose, and bulk terminal developments worldwide. Furthermore, she was involved in several transaction advisory services for international terminal concessions. Her work experience ranges from projects in several European countries to Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Guyana, Haiti), (Asia Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka), and Africa (Algeria, Angola, Ghana, Namibia, Sudan). Most recently she has been working on the feasibility study and transaction advisory for the greenfield port in Cherchell, Algeria. Furthermore, she was project manager and successfully completed the business planning and privatisation of the container terminal in Port Sudan. Presently, Christina is project manager for a greenfield container and bulk terminal development from scratch to operational in South America.
Business Development Manager, NAMPORT, Namibia
Elias Mwenyo is the Business Development Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the maritime industry. He has experience in Import, Operations Management, Ocean Transportation, International Shipping, and International Trade. He has strong business development professional with a Msc Shipping Management & Logistics focused in Marine Transportation from World Maritime University.
Acting Director of Ports and Maritime Public Domain, Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, Morocco
Ms. Sanae El AMRANI is Acting Director of the Ports and Maritime Public Domain Directorate, within the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water - Kingdom of Morocco.
State Engineer from the Hassania School of Public Works in Casablanca, she has accumulated more than 20 years of professional experience in the port and coastal sector. Her main areas of expertise are related to port and maritime safety and security, protection and valorization of coastal area, planning and financing of port projects.
She participated in several important projects at the Moroccan scale in the port and maritime fields, such as the elaboration of the national port strategy by 2030, the diagnosis of the maritime public domain and the Atlas of marine and coastal potentials in Morocco.
Sales Manager, Visy Oy, United States
John Lund has more than 15-years of experience helping marine and intermodal terminals achieve their operational objectives through the implementation of technology. He has worked on a variety of projects in Europe, Africa and the Americas involving OCR, RFID, DGPS and other process automation tools. His career motivation is knowing that he improves safety, suitability and profitability of his customer sites. John holds an MBA and law degree. A Boston, USA native, John has lived in various parts of Europe and the US, and now resides in Los Angeles, California. In his free time, he is active in sports such as strongman.
Manager International Port Development, Port of Rotterdam International, The Netherlands
Manager and engineer with experience in (international) port and industrial projects and organization development, both in private companies and public organizations. Experienced in working in different and complex environments with diverse stakeholders.
Edwin has been working in several technical and managerial functions in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the Port of Sohar in Oman and in Porto Central in Brazil. Currently he is working for Port of Rotterdam’s international department where he is managing the consultancy unit, generating new business opportunities and is involved in developing a specific program for India. He is also responsible for developing and executing the international strategy for the Port of Rotterdam.
Director, Programme Delivery and Coordination, NEPAD Agency, South Africa
Coordinating the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) Programmes Delivery and Coordination Directorate to drive and accelerate quality implementation and delivery of programmes in infrastructure, energy, environmental sustainability, trade and industry, education and human capital development, innovation and technology.
All time specifications are in Central European Time (CET). The presentations will be recorded and will remain available online afterwards.
Opening and welcome presention
Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Director Business Development, EITEP - Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer in Environmental Protection, Germany
Amine Idriss Adoum
Director, Programme Delivery and Coordination, NEPAD Agency, South Africa
The Keynote Speech will focus on the infrastructure needs and the educational needs required in order to achieve the various targeted growth.
Lars Greiner
Panel discussion with live Q&A afterwards.
Ezzeddine Kacem
Founder President of National Maritime Cluster, Tunisia
Cheikh Bedda
Director of Infrastructure and Energy, African Union Commission, Ethiopia
Elias Mwenyo
Business Development Manager, NAMPORT, Namibia
Aomar Bourhim
Head of the multilateral cooperation, Department of Marine Fisheries, Morocco
Sanae El Amrani
Acting Director of Ports and Maritime Public Domain, Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, Morocco
Moderation of the technical presentations by Dr. Martin Schramm with live Q&A.
Dr. Martin Schramm
Being traffic nodes of strategic importance – and as such system relevant – and key drivers of economic and social development, while at the same time requiring high investments, historically most ports were in the public domain. Especially in Africa, ports have been in majority fully owned, financed, and developed by governments, often together with national railways, and also the staff have usually been public employees. In the late 1980’s, private sector participation in ports started particularly in southern Europe, South America, Africa, and South Asia. The reasons were mainly growing globalisation and containerisation together with tighter public budgets. At the same time, expectations regarding public private partnerships have always been high, sometimes too high, especially when it comes to the most important point of risk sharing.
Besides giving a short general background of private sector engagement in ports, the presentation will focus on the numerous aspects to be considered when a private investor is going to take over a public terminal. This will be shown by the example of the container terminal of Port Sudan, where HPC has been involved for more than ten years on behalf of the port authority, first as on site supporter of the operations management, than in the preparation of business plans for the complete port, the selection process and supervision of a private management contractor, and finally in the then following concession process until contract signature.
Christina Prieser
Container handling equipment (“CHE”) and spreaders are critical in terminal operations. Spreaders are the common denominator in container moves: 99.9% of containers are moved via CHE with spreaders. Together, these pieces of equipment drive efficiency and safety. However, the equipment has traditionally been limited in terms of providing IT-based automation benefits.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (“AI”) and camera manufacturing have created opportunities in vision technology that only a few years ago seemed impossible. Visy’s spreader OCR system called “TopView” applies these advances to spreaders to solve some major problems facing terminals. TopView, automatically verifies every box ID picked up by a spreader and provide a series of benefits.
TopView has been proven to solve operational problems including:
The presentation will show how any spreader, on any CHE, can serve as a data collection device to enhance operations and productivity. TopView will collect data in real time and help operators make better decisions thus leading to cost savings and increased efficiency and safety. The smart spreader will save time and money on every container move and prevent costly problems that halt operations and increase terminal liability.
John Lund
The port of Rotterdam is a global hub for international trade and home to some of the world's leading industrial clusters. As Europe’s largest sea port we are one of the leaders of the energy transition and are committed to digitisation to make the port, and the supply chain, more efficient. As Port of Rotterdam we use our knowledge and experience to manage and develop ports and industrial areas internationally.
We offer advisory services, training programs, management programs and management capacity to ports and stakeholders open to develop their full potential. Working with Port of Rotterdam means that you get tailored advice for your situation. In addition to that the Port of Rotterdam connects you with companies, knowledge institutes, universities, governmental organisations, standardisation and regulating bodies. Port of Rotterdam provides ports with the best options for professional expansion, enabling you to access a network of potential investors and clients, companies and other ports. At the same time this exchange of knowledge establishes new partnerships.
The pace of change and number of disruptions continue to increase. There is of course COVID-19 and the path to economic recovery that we need to think about; however, we also need to take into consideration the energy transition, innovation, digitisation, shifting trade patterns and other changes which are having a strong impact on our world and the way ports are functioning. Existing business models need to be adjusted and new ones appear. At the same time boundaries between industries are becoming more and more diffuse. Where do you start when preparing your port for the future in a disrupted environment? I will tell you all about that during my presentation.
Edwin van Espen
Closing Remarks
Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Germany
HPC Hamburg Port Consulting is an internationally renowned consulting firm with long-standing experience in the global port, transport and logistics sector. Ever since, HPC has been providing leading-edge professional expertise with a clear operations/owner’s perspective.
In more than 40 years, we have delivered approx. 1,600 projects across 120 countries along the full project development cycle making us inimitably knowledgeable with regard to ports, intermodal terminals and airports.
Finland
Visy Oy (“Visy”) is a global software and solutions provider specializing in access and area control for ports, terminals, intermodal facilities, customs authorities and logistics centers.
Using vision technology and artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools, including optical character recognition (“OCR”), Visy has developed the Visy Access Gate Operating System (“GOS”) platform to drive automation. The Visy Access GOS will manage all people, cargo and assets that go in or out of a facility by road, rail or quay. Ultimately, Visy technology reduces operating expenses, optimizes safety & security, and increases throughput capacity.
Visy’s mission is to help its customers save time and money on every single transaction through process automation.
The Netherlands
The objective of the Port of Rotterdam Authority is to enhance the port’s competitive position as a logistics hub and world-class industrial complex. Not only in terms of size, but also with regard to quality. The Port Authority is therefore leading the transition to sustainable energy and it is committed to digitalisation in order to make the port, and the supply chain, more efficient. The core tasks of the Port Authority are to develop, manage and exploit the port in a sustainable way and to deliver speedy and safe service for shipping.
Australia
Logistics Executive Group is a specialist global Consulting and Executive Search organisation with offices throughout the Middle East, India, Asia and Australia. It provides Corporate provides Advisory, Supply Chain Transformation, Optimisation, M&A and Executive Search services across the Supply Chain, E-commerce, Petro-Chemical, Mining & Resources, Life Science, Cold Chain, FMCG and Industrial sectors.
Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Email: vpls@eitep.de
Russia
Information & Analytical Agency PortNews (IAA PortNews) was created and registered as a Russian media outlet in 2004. Today IAA PortNews is a leading and widely read source of maritime and river transport news, and a channel of interactions of businesses, government and the media. About 8,000 regular Russian readers visit the website – the fact speaks for itself about the interest to our project. Industry-focused readers from North-West to the Far East of Russia are our readership, as well as the CIS countries, Europe, China and the U.S.
The Agency’s major project is the news portal (www.portnews.ru) providing online daily coverage of important events in the port sector for the Russian and foreign readers. The news resource provides real-time updates and is accessible free of charge.
IAA PortNews offers commercial companies and government bodies to use our resources to solve various issues related to advertising and public relations.
Senegal
Africa Logistics Magazine is the 1st digital media specialized in the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management in Africa.
Our main objective is to promote the logistics sector while raising awareness on current issues to help governments and logistics companies making right decisions for the economic future of African continent.
Sengal
Maritimafrica is a bilingual press group (English and French) dedicated to the maritime sector in Africa. Launched a few months ago, Maritimafrica is aimed at students, teachers, individuals, professionals and companies in the maritime domain in Africa. It aims to inform people you about the progress of the maritime sector in Africa in terms of technology (infrastructure, handling equipment, etc.), legal (laws, regulations, etc.), institutions or maritime organizations (companies, schools, associations etc.) etc. It serves as a platform for sharing news and the various actors involved in this field. It is also a melting pot of exchange on the different challenges of the maritime sector in Africa. It will soon be followed by an electronic magazine and later a webcast.
VPLS is not just another webinar. The goal of the Virtual Ports & Logistics Summit is to give back to the infrastructure industry the lost opportunities for knowledge transfer and networking, and to provide a comprehensive overview and competitive technology showcase of a spectrum of problems and solutions in these challenging times.
The VPLS provides a comprehensive overview of current problems and solutions in the market. The different technological approaches are in competition with each other and can be discussed online before, during and after the summit.