Abu Dhabi: The Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) and AD Ports Group’s digital division, Maqta Gateway, have signed a shareholders’ agreement about their joint venture business, Maqta Ayla.
Maqta Gateway will have a 51 percent stake in Maqta Ayla, while ADC will own 49 percent. By utilizing Maqta Gateway’s experience to develop a Port Community System (PCS), the joint venture company will transform port operations in Aqaba and export Abu Dhabi’s primary port digitalization solution for the first time.
In order to streamline services and create next-level efficiencies for the port cities of Aqaba and Jordan, the PCS will make it easier for the Ports of Aqaba, its terminal operators, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), ADC, and other stakeholders within the port’s ecosystem to communicate and transact.
The system is anticipated to be operational in a year and to produce carbon emission reductions equivalent to 90,000 in-person visits within a year of its implementation.
The shareholders’ agreement was signed in the UAE on the sidelines of the 20th Transport Middle East Conference in the presence of Nayef Al Fayez, Chief Commissioner of Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, and Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Managing Director and Group CEO of AD Ports Group, by Hussein Ali Al Safadi, CEO of Aqaba Development Corporation, and Dr. Noura Al Dhaheri, CEO of Digital Custer and Maqta Gateway, AD Ports Group.
At the meeting point of three continents, the Ports of Aqaba handle 65 percent of Jordan’s imports and 80 percent of its exports. With an annual traffic of about 1.3 million TEUs, the Container Terminal in Aqaba is the fourth largest in the region and the second busiest along the Red Sea in terms of volume.