Green sparkling FIATA World Cargo Congress 2016

Last week’s 90th FIATA World Congress in Dublin (Ireland) saw more young people and women attending as delegates and speakers than ever before. The level of speakers was very high with a strong focus on information technology and the need for more IT investments by all players in the transport chain, including government agencies such as customs authorities. There are still far too many paper documents required in the supply chain process. And regulators should deploy more IT solutions to facilitate international trade. SME forwarders also are still dragging their feet when it comes to new software rollouts.

FIATA is certainly trying hard to encourage its members to address process automation as well as the opportunities and challenges of rapidly increasing cross-border e-commerce and reverse logistics. The discussions at the conference were designed to inspire and lead to more collaboration between different companies and international organizations such as IATA, WCO, and ICAO etc.

Additional highlights were the public signing of the new IATA FIATA Air Cargo Agency Program agreement and the agreement with the OJSD. The first reflects the changing role of the freight forwarder from a seller of air cargo capacity to a purchasing airline customer. The latter the increasing importance of rail with new niche market offerings such as air-rail or rail-air services capturing the imagination of forwarders.

Last but no least, FIATA devoted considerable time to aspects of training and recruitment of young professionals. This year’s winner of the Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year Award was Shanon Gould from Australia representing the Asia-Pacific region.

Many delegates, especially from outside Europe, used days before and after the conference to acquaint themselves with the Green Isle and inform themselves about business opportunities. Most had never visited Ireland before and were positively impressed.

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