Promoting computerized trade processes in the Israeli  maritime trade community 

The MAINSYS (Maritime Integrated System) project for promoting the computerized trade processes in the Israeli maritime trade community, is a technological platform that integrates all business partners involved in maritime trade and intends, on a national level, to assist in improving the competitive ability of the Israeli market by shortening the handling and shipping processes (“paperless ports”) and reducing costs involved in the maritime trade processes.

MAINSYS is operated by a joint administration headed by the Shipping and Ports Authority in the Ministry of Transportation and the Tax Authority in the Ministry of Finance. The Israel Ports Company manages the project and invested in it around 11 million NIS.

The project began a few years ago as a voluntary initiative of the Customs Authority and the Israeli Ports Authority and since the reform of the sea ports in Israel, the projects is operated by the joint administration. The partners in this project are the Haifa Port Company, the Ashdod Port Company, the Eilat Port Company, customs brokers, ship agents, fright forwarders, inland transport companies and representatives of the ports customers.

At present, around 400 organizations and entities participate in the project including exporters, importers, transport companies, international forwarders, customs brokers, ship agents and external terminals, Around 6.5 million electronic messages are transferred per month.

The Israel Ports Company views this project as an important part in the development of the ports infrastructure and therefore allocated all the resources required to promote it.

The Israel Ports Company (which replaced the Israel Ports Authority in the field of ports infrastructure development)
began formulating a new concept for computerization and management of the maritime trade processes at the beginning
of 2006. The goal was to create a central platform (site) through which every participant will be able to communicate with
all the parties involved in maritime trade. The participant, on his part, would need only to take care of his connection
to the site, without needing to deal with issues such as what type of technology and software are used by the
other participants.

This concept is a leap forward in the exchange of electronic messages between parties in the maritime trade
community. The aim is to supply secure information “cloud” that includes all the electronic messages transferred
and that will be  transferred between the various parties in the maritime trade community. The implementation of the 
concept is based on previous projects where an infrastructure for creating such a connection in the maritime
community  was designed.

This concept is implemented as part of the MAINSYS projects, which is meant to improve competition in the Israeli
market  and reduce import and export costs, support the structural changes in the ports that brought about the
establishment of four separate companies in place of one ports authority, while maintaining the unity of data
exchange in the maritime community and making it convenience for the customer to use the maritime
trade services.

This project uses advanced technology and thus positions the Israeli trading community together with the other
advanced ports in the world who already implemented such a concept.