Author: Jochebed Menon

Scheduled to open soon in the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), Yiwu Market will be the first smart free-zone market in the Middle East to cater to the retail and wholesale industries. The market is a result of a partnership between DP World and the China Commodity City Group which built and manages the world’s largest wholesale market in China for small commodities, spanning over 6 million square metres, and attracting nearly 210,000 daily visitors. Dubai’s Yiwu Market spans over 200,000 square metres, split between 324 customs-bonded warehouses and 1,600 mainland showrooms. Currently, 99% of the showrooms are already occupied.…

Soham Chokshi, CEO and co-Founder of Shipsy, discusses how technology is imperative to enable ESG results and drive sustainable logistics When Soham Chokshi, Dhruv Agrawal, Himanshu Gupta, and Sahil Arora established Shispy back in 2015, their focus was on addressing the challenges that existed in the last-mile ecosystem. But soon they realised that supply chain and logistics sectors are all connected and that last-mile inefficiencies were only the tip of the iceberg. They saw an alarming need to marry the physical and digital parts of logistics. This in turn resulted in massive expansion of the platform across first, middle, last-mile,…

Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) signed an agreement with Tradeling, the eCommerce platform focused on business-to-business (B2B) transactions to facilitate buyers on the platform better credit facilities. Parties will work on digitising the credit assessment and facilitation process of the credit history of enterprises and SMEs looking to avail of any of the platform’s credit finance offerings, which will become a major element of Tradeling’s decision-making process upon assessing the risk of the applicant’s credit finance request. As part of the agreement, local and international sellers on the platform will be able to identify companies with a good credit rating…

DP World and CDPQ, a Quebec-headquartered investment firm, announced an investment of USD5 billion in three of DP World’s flagship UAE assets. CDPQ will invest USD2.5 billion in the Jebel Ali Port, the Jebel Ali Free Zone, and the National Industries Park through a new joint venture in which it will hold a stake of approximately 22% with the remainder of the transaction being financed by debt. Other long-term investors will have the opportunity to acquire an additional stake of up to USD3 billion. The transaction implies a total enterprise value of approximately USD23 billion for the three assets. The…

Soham Chokshi, CEO and co-Founder of Shipsy, graces our June cover. He discusses how technology is imperative to enable ESG results and drive sustainable logistics. Inside we have Manrre Logistics Fund’s Chief Executive Officer Kunal Lahori, who shares his insights on industrial real estate investments and his vision for the company. Gib Basset, Director of Solutions Marketing, Supply Chain, Alteryx shares how data-driven insights can mitigate supply chain risks. In our special report we delve into discovering the best last-mile delivery service providers in the region in terms of efficiency, transparency, cost effectiveness, and sustainability. Leading societies to a low…

The Copenhagen-headquartered Scan Global Logistics (SGL) has opened its second office in Dubai, in just a month after launching its first office in the emirate. The firm has had a commercial representation in Dubai for several years. However, with the new regulations allowing 100% foreign ownership in the UAE, the company grasped the opportunity to set up a full-fledged business platform benefitting both global and local customers with flows to and from the UAE. “We have grown much faster than expected and still see exponential growth. To get even closer to our key customers, we will open our next office…

Dubai Municipality’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Centre, the official source for providing and updating maps, plans and geographic information for Dubai, has initiated a project of designing highly precise digital maps for autonomous vehicles. This step comes in line with the ambitions and visions of the smart Dubai government to promote digital transformation of public utilities and make Dubai ‘the best city to live’ in the world as well as strengthening Dubai Municipality vision of making it the pioneering global city. The project targets preparing and designing maps as per the best standards and international practices, reflecting the emirate’s spirit of…

Port authorities around the world have a major role in supporting sustainable economic growth and delivering a greener future, according to experts and executives meeting in Abu Dhabi for the seventh edition of Port Authorities Roundtable (PAR 2022). The major annual event brought together port authorities from territories as diverse as Antwerp, Barcelona, Busan, Guangzhou, Iraq, Kobe, Oman, Rotterdam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Seattle, Singapore, and Shanghai to discuss the theme, ‘Reimagining a New Era of Trade Together.’ Among the key topics examined in the closed-door event were ports’ efforts to build a robust infrastructure to mitigate the impact of…

Emirates Post, a postal operator and express provider in the UAE, launched, its latest range of advanced services as part of its broader customer-digital, and sustainability-focused strategies. The company unveiled the services during its participation at Seamless Middle East 2022 in Dubai. Its newly introduced portfolio of services will create a simplified customer engagement whilst boosting the local eCommerce sector and other economic sectors within the UAE that rely on postal and parcel services. Peter Somers, CEO of Emirates Post, said: “The new business solutions will result in added convenience and faster more efficient delivery of services, as well as…

DP World announced the creation of DPMETAWORLD, a new initiative aimed at bringing cutting edge virtual solutions to real-world supply chain challenges. Across the industries in which DP World operates, supply chains are moving from analogue to embrace new digital solutions. This project will allow DP World to lead the acceleration of this trend through the untapped capabilities of the metaverse, helping drive efficiency and transparency. The platform is expected to launch by the end of 2022 and DP World is actively talking to best-in-class technology partners to help develop the platform and help bring our innovative solutions to life.…