Slovenia-based CargoX announced Monday a long-term extension of its current agreement with the Egyptian government to facilitate the country’s global trade document transfers needs.
While the length of the new contract was undisclosed, CargoX will continue to work with Misr Technology Services (MTS), a trade and logistics platform 80% owned by Egypt, to provide its blockchain technology for the country’s customs facilitation platform the National Single Window for Foreign Trade Facilitation (NAFEZA).
NAFEZA became the mandatory system for Egyptian ports on Oct. 1, integrating over 26 cargo clearance-related government systems, reducing the number of customs documents needed in Egypt from 18 to six.
The adoption of NAFEZA is part of Egypt’s 2030 Vision, a long-term strategic plan to achieve sustainable development across economic, social and environmental sectors. Since adopting the initiative in 2020, Egypt has remained the only country in the Middle East and North Africa to avoid economic recession.
“In pursuit of Egypt’s ambitious strategy for sustainable development and integration into the global economy, MTS succeeded in implementing the national single window for trade across borders to achieve the transformation from 19th century manual and paper-intensive customs procedures to a modern, state-of-the-art, digital ecosystem,” said Capt. Ossama al Sharif, MTS’ chief executive officer and chairman.
According to CargoX, since use of NAFEZA became mandatory, it has been used by 32,000 importers, 20,000 exporters, 2,200 brokers, 300 shipping agencies and more than 74,000 foreign exporters, handling around 12,000 trade transactions a day.
“The use of the platform in the public sector is a revolutionary step for global maritime shipping …,” said Stefan Kukman, founder and chief executive officer of CargoX. “We are constantly working on providing great value, confidentiality, transparency, and immutability to our customers and our partners — and we base that value on building digital trust in global trade.”
As part of its new agreement, CargoX will be extended in the NAFEZA system to include air cargo customs, integrating into the operations of 30 new physical locations including airports, seaports, dry ports, border posts, free zones and bonded warehouses.
“Governments and companies with a strong digitalization agenda are showing the way for all the rest to follow, while gaining a strategic advantage in the global markets. We listen to our strategic business partners and develop features on the platform that are adapted to the needs of the global trade — with specifics that can be tailored to specific needs of our partners and always provide ease of use, value, and savings in time and cost for our global user base,” said Vjeran Ortynski, CargoX chief business development officer.
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