Mahmood Al Bastaki, CEO of Dubai Trade, the leading facilitator of trade across borders under Dubai World, lent his expertise to the Hult Prize 2013 in assessing the competing teams after he was named to the panel of judges of the prestigious global award. This honour rounds out a quarter of impressive achievements for Al Bastaki and Dubai Trade following the announcement of TradeShield, Dubai Trade’s approach to cargo insurance in February and the successful staging of the 5th E-Service Excellence Award in January.

Organised in association with the Hult International Business School and in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Hult Prize is a start-up accelerator for social entrepreneurship, which has created the world’s largest student movement for social good. Every year, thousands of university students from around the globe compete in creating the most compelling social businesses that lead to sustainable, scalable and fast-growing solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems that affect billions at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

The competition has been launched in five regional centres around the world, including Boston, London, San Francisco, Shanghai and Dubai, with the final winners deliberated and announced in September. The winning team will be awarded $1 million in seed capital by former US president Bill Clinton to launch their social venture.

Representatives of winners of the 5th E-Service Excellence Award (ESEA) with their trophies

Al Bastaki joined an elite group of policy makers, social entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders selected to deliberate and judge competing teams from the Middle East and North Africa in the Dubai regional final of the 4th Annual Hult Prize held on March 2. They included Mohammed Shael Al Saadi, CEO of Dubai Government Registration and Licensing Sector; Shaima Al Zarooni, CEO of International Humanitarian City; Mohammed Ali Ahmed, COO of DP World; Wissam Hachem, CEO of Etihad Group, and Mahmood Al Bastaki, CEO of Dubai Trade.

Commenting on his nomination to the panel of judges, Al Bastaki said:

“I’m proud and delighted to have contributed to such a major humanitarian task, which I believe has deservedly been named by Bill Clinton and Time Magazine as one of the top five ideas changing the world. This year’s theme for the Hult Prize has been additionally compelling to me as it seeks to find an entrepreneurial solution to lack of food security in disadvantaged urban districts around the world, where hundreds of millions of people suffer from malnutrition or hunger despite the fact that the world has plenty of resources to secure safe, sufficient, affordable and easily accessible food for all its population. Charity is not a solution to this problem, a sustainable social entrepreneurial model that can be applied universally is.”

Al Bastaki added: “The Hult Prize is an incredible humane gesture from President Clinton himself. The project is a practically oriented experience for the students to demonstrate their ability to turn what they learn in school into a reality that serves humankind. It adds value to humanity and wellbeing of the people suffering in the world. I am very much supportive of the theme of this prestigious award and the award itself.”

Welcoming an audience of 250 students from 57 universities based in 40 countries that gathered at the Hult International Business School in Dubai Internet City prior to announcing the results, Al Bastaki introduced and highlighted Dubai’s vision and ambition and why Dubai was named the “City of the Future”. Citing Dubai Trade’s record in supporting and training the youth, Al Bastaki expressed Dubai Trade’s willingness to support and cooperate with the winning team to ensure their project turns successful.

One of the ESEA winners (Exporter Of The Year 2012) was Borouge PTE Ltd, the marketing arm of Borouge whose Ruwais (Abu Dabi) plant is pictured

Teams from the Tunis Business School, American University of Cairo, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, American University of Beirut, Abu Dhabi University and Akhawayn University were among competitors for the prize this year.

Following the regional finals, one winning team from each host city will move into a summer business incubator, where participants will receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning as they create prototypes and set-up to launch their new social business.

NEW INSURANCE SERVICES
Tradeshield is the insurance online service now available to Dubai Trade customers and portal visitors enabling them to request and compare quotes from multiple key insurance providers. This service will be a step forward for Dubai Trade Portal in its vision to become the one stop shop and the single window for trade facilitation.

TOP E-SERVICES ADOPTERS
The 5th E-Service Excellence Award (ESEA) was held in January under the patronage of HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, during which top performers in electronic services adoption in 2012 were honoured by Dubai Trade. 

The gala ceremony recognised the achievements of the most active online performers throughout the year and was attended by Abdullah Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The prestigious event was also attended by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World; Jamal Majid bin Thaniah, chairman of Dubai Trade, and key dignitaries from the government and private sector, top management and decision-makers from manufacturing and trading companies, supply chain service providers, bankers and financiers, and senior executives from Dubai World and its business units.

This year’s prestigious ESEA accolade witnessed an increase in the number of nominees. The award was given to companies in nine categories in recognition of their high performance in adopting the E-Services provided through Dubai Trade portal. The winners of the 5th ESEA titles are:

• Clearing Agent Of The Year 2012: Al Areesh Cargo Clearing & GLT

• Importer of The Year 2012: T Choithram & Sons LLC.

• Exporter of The Year 2012: Borouge Pte Ltd

• Haulier of The Year 2012:  Arty Transport Co LLC

• Free Zone Company of The Year 2012:

Agility Global Logistics FZE

• Shipping Agent – Containerised Cargo of The Year 2012: OOCL (UAE) LLC

• Shipping Agent – General Cargo of The Year 2012: Gulf Agency Company (Dubai) LLC

• Freight Forwarder of The Year 2012: Wilhelmsen Ships Service (Barwil Dubai LLC)

• Re-Exporter of The year 2012: Eros Electricals

Appreciation awards were also granted to joint Platinum Sponsors: Network International & Emirates NBD, the two Gold Sponsors: FedEx and Al Futtaim Logistics, and the Sliver Sponsors: Mashreq Bank, Agility Global Logistics FZE, Freight Systems and Globelink West Star Shipping.

In his speech at the event, DP World chairman Bin Sulayem commented, “Dubai Trade has consistently demonstrated its proactivity. It has taken on the task of enhancing the emirate’s position as one of the world’s most popular business hubs and as a leading trade and logistics facilitator. Dubai Trade receives the full support of DP World in increasing the adoption of E-Services and digital transformation in trade and logistics as this falls directly in line with the UAE’s ambitious goals and efforts in enhancing global competitiveness in facilitating regional and international trade.”

In congratulating the winners, Bin Thaniah, praised the relationship between the trade and logistics community and Dubai Trade. He added, “Year after year, Dubai Trade has succeeded in strengthening its position with the trade and logistics sector, which is reaping the direct benefits of adopting its E-Services. This occasion also provides a good opportunity to pay tribute to the vital role played by Dubai Trade in supporting trade growth in Dubai.”

For his part, Al Bastaki revealed new records realised by the portal, with the number of registered users hitting 72,000, an increase of over 26 per cent from 57,000 at the end of 2011. He continued, “As we witness this growing demand, we congratulate the ESEA winners on their efforts in adopting our E-Services. Competition was fierce this year, and this is but a reflection of our winners’ enthusiasm and commitment, and their desire to remain well-informed and benefit from the digital evolution in cross-border trading.”

Another record was unveiled by Al Bastaki: “There is no doubt about the extent to which the trade and logistics community uses our E-Services. Transactions on the Dubai Trade platform in 2012 alone reached approximately 14.9 million compared with 12 million in 2011, growth of 24 per cent over the past year. This is a direct result of our team’s success in creating optimal IT solutions and the levels of support we continue to receive from our board of directors. These numbers also reflect the great benefits realised by our customers in time efficiency, cost reduction and in environmental terms, in addition to the fact that we provide a secure platform for our customers’ transactions as well as enhanced transparency.”

The 5th E-Service Excellence Award gala ceremony was held this year with significant support from various governmental entities as well as trade and logistics agencies, in the forefront of which were the Joint Platinum Sponsors Network International and Emirates NBD.