Tag to make the posts appear under the “Educating the Sector” section of the blog.

#DidYouKnow: Spotlight on Algeria

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Mohamed Lazhar Benaissa

Mohamed Lazhar Benaissa Academic at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Technologie – ENST – Alger

In 2017 the Escola Europea, along with the Escola’s founding partners, has launched the MOS Magreb project. Its objective was to increase the cooperation between the countries in the North and South of the Mediterranean Sea. The project evolved into TransLogMed, which now counts with 42 partners from Spain, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, with the goal of incorporating other partners from Egypt in the future. The long-term objective of this project is to foster the development of the Motorways of the Sea between the Mediterranean countries, which will in turn help promoting inclusive growth and youth employability, as well as sustainable development in the region.

This month we have caught up with Mr. Mohamed Lazhar Benaissa, an academic at the École Nationale Supérieure de Technologie (ENST) in Alger, the deputy director for external relations and continuing education and a lecturer at the Escola Europea to give us an overview of the logistics scene in Algeria.

 

Logistics in Algeria

Algeria’s geographical location as the largest country in Africa, situated at the crossroads of important trade corridors (Europe-Africa, Mediterranean Sea), gives it the opportunity to play a major role in the field of logistics. To the north, Algeria has a 1,200 km long seafront overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and is home to 11 trading ports through which more than 95% of its foreign trade passes. However, this situation should not mask the numerous constraints related to the characteristics of these ports and their current organisation. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Maritime Transport Connectivity Index [1]for Algeria in 2019 is only 12.81/100, far behind countries such as Egypt (66.72) and Morocco (58.19).  This is because the ports are often of ancient foundation[2] and are located within large cities that have prospered without sparing the land reserves necessary for their harmonious development. Whether first or second generation, these ports are subject to simple load breaks and do not meet the criteria that characterise modern logistics ports[3]. Currently the feedering used consists of coupling transoceanic containerised traffic headed towards large European ports with short-distance traffic headed towards Algeria, which increases the transit time of inputs. This will subsequently see their time lengthening once again during the transhipment operations. This results in insufficient yields and malfunctions that generate incessant bottlenecks and yields additional logistics costs.

The Algerian fleet

As regards the Algerian maritime fleet, as of the end of 2017, it was made up of 16 (often) obsolete units distributed among :

  1. 8 bulk carriers, 4 multi-purpose vessels and 2 RO-RO vessels belonging to the public company CNAN[4],
  2. 1 RO-RO and 1 bulk carrier belonging to the private company Nolis, a subsidiary of the Cevital[5]group.

What about containerisation?

As for containerisation, which has been gaining significant market share value over the past several years, it has proven of great benefit to foreign shipping lines as, in the virtual absence of the national flag, it allows them to freely set transport prices. According to World Bank figures[6], container traffic increased from 2007 to 2018 from 200.050 to 1.465.800 TEUs respectively, which is equivalent to an average annual growth rate of 20.6%. Given this growth opportunity, it is not surprising that we are witnessing the establishment of international terminal operators in Algerian ports such as the Singaporean Portek in Bejaia and the Emirati DP World in Algiers and Djendjen.

Where is Algeria on the digitisation scene?

During port passage, the lack of a rapid information systems makes it difficult to forecast the capacity of goods to be loaded, which, in the case of temperature-controlled products for example, would keep them on the quayside without any guarantees of preservation and respect for the cold chain. At the time of writing, only the Algerian customs can use a computer system called SIGAD in order to speed up the customs declaration circuit. In its most recent version, this system has a risk management system that classifies goods according to 3 circuits: green, orange and red. In the green circuit, goods are not subject to examination. In the orange circuit, the control consists of a documentary examination and in the red circuit, a physical inspection of the goods is required.

What of intermodal transport?

In terms of land transport infrastructure, Algeria has substantial networks whose quality has improved in recent years. Nevertheless, the motorway network is still insufficient and the lack of connections to several ports bears a cost. The rail network, for its part, is still in the process of development in terms of quality and coverage.

Road transport logistics, which dominates 90 per cent of goods flows, is only slightly outsourced by companies, since more than 50 per cent of the market is still handled by own-account transport. There is currently a growing awareness of the advantages of using transport for hire or reward and outsourcing the transport function, and the opportunities for growth for this sector are ample.

The provision of road transport services has long been a public monopoly. The opening up of the sector in 1988 led to an atomisation of the sector through the creation of very small companies with vehicles of all ages and of varying condition. It is therefore more a question of small-scale, or even informal activities that risk increasing the financial and organisational risks and reducing the scope to optimise the services offered. Air transport plays only a marginal role and rail freight activity, which is already weak, has been in inexorable decline for decades and is limited to heavy goods transport. Multimodal transport is almost non-existent.

Distribution is dominated by wholesalers present in most economic sectors and in particular in agri-food products (beverages, sugar, etc.). Few of them follow known logistics models, such as Numidis of the Cevital group. Indeed, with the exception of large conurbations (Algiers, Oran, Sétif…), where large modern warehouses are beginning to appear, storage facilities are of modest size (from 2 to 4,000 m²), of old-fashioned design, lack functionality and do not have special equipment such as loading docks. The players are either industrialists (acting on their own account), wholesalers or retail traders.

Logistics Warehouse in Algeria

Modern logistics warehouse in Bouira (Cevital)

Thus, logistics services are essentially limited to the subcontracting of transport operations.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the training situation in Algeria?

The current supply of training is insufficient in many areas, no doubt due to the lack of formal demand from the sector and a lack of impetus from the public authorities.

The Algerian authorities have been trying to improve the logistics situation since 2007, when the first master plan for the establishment of new logistics platforms was prepared. However, the implementation of the latter has not yet materialized. The other actions undertaken were :

  • The World Bank has been approached to prepare a logistics strategy and upgrade the legislative and regulatory framework, as several ministries and agencies are currently involved in logistics and are sometimes in conflict of jurisdiction;
  • The preparation of a project for the construction of a modern port in Hamadania about 100 km west of Algiers with a Chinese partnership;
  • Digitisation through the implementation of an electronic port one-stop shop. This will help unite the whole logistics chain of the ports and the segments that interact in its activities. It will also enable the digitisation of procedures and a better coordination and planning of port operations.

One can already wonder whether these actions will end up putting logistics in Algeria on the rails of modernity.

 

References:

[1] https://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/tableView.aspx

[2] With the exception of the oil ports of Arzew, Skikda and the general cargo port of Djendjen, built after Independence, the rest of the infrastructure was built between 1840 and 1959, initially built to allow exports during the time of colonization.

[3] Algerian ports are characterised by shallow draughts and narrow gravel pits, which are incompatible with modern port operating requirements.

[4] The average age of the CNAN fleet is between 30 and 35 years, which corresponds to that of the technical reform.

[5] The two Nolis vessels are mainly used to cover the transport needs of the Cevital group.

[6] Site https://donnees.banquemondiale.org/indicateur/IS.SHP.GOOD.TU?locations=DZ consulted in May 2020

Circle of the Sustainable Development Goals - SDG

And Greta went to New York

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Source: un.org

An ever-changing world

It is the time when autumn arrives at the northern hemisphere, and with it a new edition of our cherished Odiseo. The edition which will feature aspects of sustainability which arose spontaneously. When we reviewed the topics we wanted to deal with, we realised that almost all of them were facing the same direction.

It coincides with the timing of Greta Thunberg’s trip to New York, following an invitation from the United Nations to participate in a climate summit at the United Nations. On her arrival, a fleet of 17 UN boats (one for each of the Sustainable Development Goals) received her in New York waters to accompany her on the last leg of her journey.

Source: europa.eu

It seems incredible how this young Swede, at only 16 years of age, is succeeding in mobilising an enormous number of people among whom are many of the world’s most important politicians. For those of you who want to get to know her better, I recommend viewing her speech in the European Parliament last April. Her message touches the heart and moves to action.  She made an impassioned plea for the planet urging MEPs to “start panicking about climate change” rather than “waste time arguing about Brexit.”

The world’s great powerhouses are beginning to worry about much of what is happening. The United Nations is a frontrunner in particular, following its magnificent awareness campaign of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) published in 2000: halving extreme poverty rates, universal primary education, gender equality and empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, environmental sustainability and a global partnership for development, all by a 2015 deadline. Which, incredibly, was met!

Today we are presented with the Sustainable Development Goals, a plan to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. These address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice. The Goals are interlinked and, if we are not to leave anyone behind, it is important that we attain each Goal by 2030.

Some may consider it more of a marketing campaign than a Real Action Programme, but I sincerely believe that today we are what we know and what we need to be, so let us celebrate the use of marketing as a lever of change. I know that the world is better today than 15 years ago and even more so than 30 years ago. We must continue to set goals, even if they seem utopian, to keep us moving forward.  It is as Eduardo Galeano said: “Utopia is on the horizon. I walk two steps, she moves two steps away and the horizon runs ten steps further. So what is Utopia for? For that; it is good for walking.”

Today Utopia can simply stand for complying with the SDG’s. This includes everyone’s involvement, starting with each one at an individual level and moving through the projects we work on and the politicians and policies we vote on.

The implications for the port sector

Institutions such as the Port Authority of Barcelona are taking a new look at how to act in light of these objectives. In the port’s latest reports on Corporate Social Responsibility, and in other management reports, the SDG related to the activities carried out are highlighted. I can assure you that they are changing the way we look at the work to be done and that we are becoming increasingly more aware of the impact of our decisions and actions on the achievement of objectives. There is an important movement, which we will introduce in more detail later, that seeks to transform the ports into SMART PORTS. We will be able to see this better at the Smart City Expo Congress that will be held from 19 to 21 November in Barcelona and which for the first time will have a space dedicated to ports. The ports of Barcelona, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Los Angeles and Montreal will come together to lead a global movement for improvement in the port area.

The implication for operators

We can see that sustainability in the transport sector has become one of the fundamental elements on a daily basis. Companies highlight the social impact of their activities, both in terms of external costs and polluting emissions.

Grimaldi presents vessels that contaminate less during port stays, and has begun associating itself with the Clean Shipping Alliance 2020 (CSA 2020). CSA 2020 defines itself as a group of leading companies from the commercial shipping and cruise industries that have been leaders in emission control efforts and have made significant investments in research and analysis, funding and committing resources to comply with 2020 fuel requirements through the development and use of Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS).

Shipping companies, port terminals, and land transport operators (both rail and road) are changing the way they conduct their operations. It seems clear that the European Commission’s principle that the polluter pays and the user pays will eventually be imposed not only at a European but possibly at international level as well.

 

How can we implicate ourselves?

Aristotle considered that attaining the fullness of the expression of human capabilities is the meaning and end of every individual.

Therefore, let me raise this virtue, the SDGs, as a collective objective, as a new project. A project you can work on.

The eight objectives for human development in 2000 positioned people in the epicentre of development.  They focused on potential development, about increasing possibilities and enjoying the freedom to live life.

Human development is the acquisition of the capacity to participate effectively in the construction of a prosperous society in both a material and spiritual sense; it is an integral part of the individual attaining a deeper knowledge of himself – externally and (perhaps more so) internally, more intimately within him- or herself.

The objectives have to reorient the way in which we understand life and society.

I believe in a humanism in which the construction of collective solutions involves individual action. The construction of global solution passes through the construction of oneself, and the routine day-to-day work paves the way for the progress of humanity and a better world for all.

I would like to highlight a few of the objectives.

Quality education understood as a duty for life. Our education and that of those who at some point depend on us: children, employees, relatives. Let us value having been born into a society that has provided us with access to exceptional education.

 

 

 

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but the necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. A society, organization or person who does not understand that we all have the same rights and obligations is ill. If you have to hire, pay, distribute and organize the work always seek this equality.

 

 

Decent work and economic growth: I don’t like using the word growth when referring to the economy. In my opinion, the challenge is to create employment without growing. On the surface it may seem like a paradox, but it is a different way of looking at things.

To end let me go back to the classics. Firstly, the concept of virtue that Aristotle left in his books on ethics, dedicated to his son Nicomacheus:

“Since, then, the present inquiry does not aim at theoretical knowledge like the others (for we are inquiring not in order to know what arete, virtue, is, but in order to become good, since otherwise our inquiry would have been of no use), we must examine the nature of actions.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II, 2).

Vicenç Molina, a friend and mentor and what today would be called an influencer, brought it closer to our daily reality:

“Let us start, therefore, with the practice: working practically.

With the values raised, with the commitment achieved.

With constructive impetus. Poetically, without surprises or shrieks because, at its root, poetry is construction.

So, we do not have to be cut off… Or naive, but natural, real, feasible, civic…”

It is a wonderful reflection that should help us face our citizenry with love to the things that, in the end, will be important.

Each of us should be part of this project. All of us have values that we can bring to the surface, something which we can achieve by struggling to build ourselves. With creativity, with dialogue and cooperation, with self-determination, with work and effort, with commitment to people, and with knowledge and wisdom.

Let us all be accomplices in this great challenge, and may the road ahead present us with luck and happiness throughout the coming Millenia. I hope you will enjoy the articles in this Odiseo as much as I have.

Regards

 

Eduard Rodés

Director

Escola Europea

The jobs of the Future

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Talking about the jobs of the future has become fashionable. What will a white-collar professional look like? For many years now, researches have been predicting that new technologies, constantly evolving, will be incorporated into our daily lives to the extent that they will substantially change the way we work. Nevertheless, it is still not clear what, how and when these changes will take place.

The end of February saw the Mobile World Congress, which was held in Barcelona. Following the gathering we now know that networks with 5G technologies will be deployed quickly. The Port of Barcelona has set aside considerable investment in the network’s installation. From then on we can look forward to robots, automation processes, sensorisation, big data, IoT, drones and so on and so forth.

A news item from the Spanish online magazine El País Digital dated 25 February 2019 further underlined the issue: “Before the halfway point of the year is passed, the Ford and Nissan plants (with more than 10,000 workers between the two) will reveal what future awaits them. Doubts about the future of diesel and the risks about how the transition to electric cars will be dealt with and whether the Spanish industry will be able to climb on the bandwagon to produce them. “

Employees who know how to make cars with traditional internal combustion engines will now have produce electric cars. The electrical engineering skills for these new vehicles might be better found among employees of a washing machine factory rather than the workforce of current-day carmakers. We are living in a world of disruptive changes that demand a very high adaptability.

We are told that many of the current jobs will disappear and new ones will be created, but we do not know which ones, nor do we know the specific skills that will have to be acquired. Even if we had the advantage of foresight, it would not be easy to react either as surely, we do not yet have readily available teachers or experts prepared to train others in these subjects.

I, as the director, am fortunate because the Escola Europea has a magnificent vantage point to see and assess the situation in many training centres in Europe and across the Mediterranean shores. A significant number of students and teachers pass through our classrooms. We spend a lot of time together, and this gives us the opportunity to get to know each other and to talk a little about a myriad of topics.  I’ve seen that the majority is worried about the future, and about whether the students are well prepared for what faces them in the road ahead.

Our teachers are exceptional, but nevertheless they are aware that the problem is universal and affects everyone. They also are faced with the challenge of teaching skills that they themselves have not yet fully mastered. The VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) imposes itself.

According to the study by the Barcelona business school IESE “The Future of Occupation and Future Professional Skills” ( February 2019), what we can see is that the knowledge gap in technology and digitalization is following a continuous upward trend. “48% of companies detect deficiencies in vocational training graduates. Likewise, companies consider that the knowledge gap in areas such as big data, digital marketing, artificial intelligence or blockchain will be even bigger in five years, which increases the challenge of improving the education system”. Companies consider that they have to play a more active role in the definition of future professional competences and in the contents of training. They need, on the part of the education system, a more complete, holistic and practical training, with emphasis on the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed in the coming years. A more intense collaboration of the different actors is needed. 87% of the companies that participated in the study considered it important for them play a more active role in defining the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes that are in demand in the industry. They expressed their willingness to collaborate in the creation of training plans with the educational centres in this vital task.

The message is clear. The responsibility for training belongs not only to the educational institutions, but also to the companies themselves, and to the workers already active in the sector who should get their associations and professional networks involved.

We all owe recognition to those professionals who devote part of their time to training others. At the Escola we know this very well and are indebted to the individuals who come to lecture in our classrooms or carry out the practical workshops, and share their professional expertise and advice with us and our students. I ask you for the recognition and gratitude they deserve for the work they do.

If you are interested in this topic, it is worth spending some time on the report that the world economic forum produced in 2018 (https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2018).

We must think of strategies that will allow us to facilitate the transition into this new technology-dominant professional landscape. And we have to be prepared for the surprises that will inevitably come up. Personally, I strongly believe that we will have a much better world, albeit a drastically different one from what we have today.

 

Eduard Rodés Director Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport