The practice entails an automation process through implementing an electronic platform called (MARASI) which is related to facilitation of vessel berthing at the private jetties at the Kingdom of Bahrain. MARASI is linked to five UN SDGs in particular; goals 8, 13,14,15 and 17.

Private jetties are key elements for the economic growth of Bahrain as these facilities constitutes a gateway for imports/exports of a variety of vital bulk and raw materials shipped by vessels. Moreover, shipping agents are visiting the Ministry’s premises to submit hard copies of documents, pay the port handling charges and finally obtain vessel berthing permission. The entire process is made manually which that requires approximately 2 hours. Besides, manual processing imposes risk (errors, wrong billing, loss of docs etc.) and time-consuming, clients can’t submit their requests over the weekend as offices are closed.

5000 years ago and during the ancient bronze civilization of (Dilmun), Bahrain Bahrain was an important center and trading hub linking trade routes between the Indus Valley (India) and the ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq). Many vessels use to stop at Bahrain to trade and also load fresh water, food and provision to cater for the next voyage towards Mesopotamia. It is worth mentioning that Bahrainis were fishing and pearling for living for hundreds of years until the exploration of oil in Bahrain.

The name MARASI was given to the electronic platform as we believe that it will have an impact in various aspects.

MARASI will streamline private jetties operations and enables customers to obtain berthing permission 24/7. The process responds to at least 5 SDGs:
• Goal 8: automation will enable our clients to process vessel berthing request online which will enhance workforce utilization comparing to a manual process. Automation is an important pillar for trade facilitation and thus economic growth.
• Goal 13/15: the automation will prevent 1600 vehicle annually which are translated into 16 million ton of carbon emission annually generated from clients visits when obtaining the berthing permission at a private jetty. Besides, the automation will eliminate more than 12,000 documents annually that will be archived electronically. This will save thousands of trees.
• Goal 14: MARASI will ensure that licensing of any private jetty is according to the IMO related environment protection conventions and guidelines such as MARPOL, BWM etc.
• Goal 17: the MTT is treating environmental protection seriously as several initiatives were made to support UN SDGs as well as various international conventions and regulations derived from IMO/ICAO etc. Example: PMA inspection team regularly inspect the private jetties to ensure conformity of the licensing standards declared by PMA. Also, Port state control is inspecting vessel to ensure preventing sub-standard vessels from calling Bahrain.

The main stakeholders involved in this practice is the port operations directorate along with the IT department at the MTT. Besides, beneficiaries are shipping agents, private jetties, customs brokers. During the development of MARASI, those stakeholders were trained to use the system; also the testing stage was an experimental period where clients feedback is taken onboard.

As part of the continuous improvement approach followed by MTT/PMA, the management realized the importance of automation to facilitate/ease private jetty operations. The project was initiated by PMA’s management addressed to H.E. the Minister with a proposal for automation, after securing the approval technical study and brainstorming sessions were made between operations/IT directorates to discuss MARASI concept. Operations/IT directorate held various workshops with the system developer to test/fine tune the system and resolve any glitch. All parties agreed to continuously monitor MARASI performance and report any slowness or/and unusual behavior.

MARASI helped in contributing to goals 8, 13 14,15 and 17 and mainly the environmental related goals through cutting down tons of carbon emissions and saving thousands of papers/trees. In addition, the processing time for transactions is reduced from 2 hours 5 days’ week to 30 minutes 24/7. Moreover, there was some resistance among the customs clearing agents because the automation will eliminate the manual submission of the process and thus negatively impacted their job security. MTT/PMA met with the clients in order to explain the benefit of automation and deliver the bigger picture of MARASI and how it will improve the overall industry. Majority of the clients were positive and welcomed the idea and were optimistic to have the automation. In longer terms, further integration with other governmental agencies to link MARASI with the Custom’s single window system to provide the client with one-stop-shop responding to the global trade facilitation initiatives.

The system developers of MARASI was a vendor that developed a ship registry portal for MTT/PMA and possesses a good knowledge about the ports and maritime industry. The vendor was requested to develop another system (MARASI) and asked if it can be built similarly with the ship registry portal, the vendor confirmed the possibility of developing the system on the existing portal and it was easier for the MTT/PMA to work with the vendor because of the knowledge possessed and the long relation with the ministry. It was challenging to translate the manual processes into MARASI and also the integration with the Ministry of Finance and MTT finance department as well as the Ministry of Industry and Commence for licensing purposes, but extra time and efforts were made to overcome these challenges to enable and achieve successful integration.

MARASI will improve transaction duration and will reduce the processing time from 2 hours to 30 minutes. In addition; MARASI will encourage shipping lines to perform trade without barriers and have direct interaction with the port authority around the clock. Moreover, eliminating 11,200 of archive documents and reducing printing will lead to cost and energy saving. MARASI will also contribute to environmental protection on air, sea and land by eliminating carbon emission caused by various sources. Besides, the future plan for MARASI is to be integrated with Customs via a single window platform in order to respond to IMO’s trade facilitation conventions (FAL convention) and trade facilitation agreement of WTO. Furthermore, other related government services will be automated in the second phase of integration to enhance the services quality provided.

MARASI is an electronic platform that facilitates private jetties operations in Bahrain. The process for allowing berthing permission for vessels calling private jetties was performed manual and now automated by using MARASI. The automation will enable clients to perform a variety of services with the government through the electronic platform around the clock from anywhere in the globe.

Derived from its history and heritage; being the historical trading hub and depending on maritime as it is an important pillar for sustainability, Bahrain believes that it is essential to prevent the environment carbon footprint and conserve energy through automation and best practices.

The contribution of MARASI into the industry in Bahrain goes far beyond customer’s exception as it contributes to 5 UN SDGs at least. MARASI will support the economic growth through the easiness of doing business, climate action and life below water will be positively impacted by MARASI as it will eliminate tons of carbon footprint and safe energy and trees. PMA/MTT is setting a clear vision which to partnership for all the goals through providing automation and trade facilitation. Apart from the other benefits stated in this story; time is a cost in shipping and MARASI will improve the service quality and enhance efficiency.