Brasilia: Asian carriers operating out of the major ports of Brazil -including Santos, the biggest for general cargo - could receive a major boost from a Brazilian Special Ports Ministry initative to drastically cut red tape.
For Brazil's special ports minister Pedro Brito has chosen the first three ports which will act as guinea pigs in an attempt to reduce bureaucracy at the South American country's main maritime gateways via the Porto Sem Papel (PSP or Ports without Paper) project, which is an EDI system that aims to carry out all processing on line.
The ports of Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Vitoria have been chosen for the experiment and training of port personnel will begin in March of this year, according to Brito, who released the news yesterday via his own miniblog Twitter.
And carriers such as NYK Line, K Line, MOL, Evergreen, PIL and Hyundai Merchant Marine will all save cash as time spent processing boxes through the major ports will be slashed by "at least 20%", according to a Special Ports Ministry statement.
The PSP project aims to co-ordinate and integrate the various organisations involved in the transit of cargo through Brazil's ports ?" including customs, health officials and agricultural inspectors among others ?" via a "single virtual window" which will speed up cargo processing significantly.
According to Brito the aim is to "reduce logistics costs and make Brazil more competitive in the international markets".
Around Reais19M (USD$10.927M) is being provided for the project by Brasilia's Programme to Accelerate the Economy (PAC) programme. [14/01/10]
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