The project consisted of developing a Smart Ports toolkit to allow Port Authorities/OGA and terminal operators to monitor and evaluate their year-on-year progress towards becoming smart ports. This toolkit is based on the identification of good international practices in the implementation of smart ports and a non-exhaustive list of smart port initiatives. The toolkit contains quantitative and qualitative indicators that can be measured by stakeholders, allowing them to track their successes, demonstrate the value of activities and ensure that efforts remain focused. This toolkit provides a holistic view of the type of legal, regulatory and technological ecosystem needed to implement smart port solutions.

The main project activities were the following:

• Defining what constitutes a smart port initiative or intervention; identifying a non-exhaustive list of benchmark indicators, compiled in reference to the world’s leading smart ports, e.g., artificial intelligence, green port initiatives (biodiversity), IoT, drones, blockchain, VAR and Big Data.
• Analysing the economic and social drivers of smart port solutions from governments and/or the private sector; for example, operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, etc.
• Studying the experience (challenges and successes) of governments and/or private sectors in the identification, implementation and execution of all necessary ICTs, digitization, process re-engineering and other relevant solutions.
• Making recommendations on the optimal institutional, legal, regulatory and operational (ILRO) framework needed to underpin the evolution towards a smart port. For example: the security and accessibility of large quantities of industrial data. How were these conflicts overcome or how can they be overcome?
• Developing a smart port toolkit that can measure both facts and subjective perceptions (quantitative and qualitative indicators). The toolkit allows ports to measure their year-on-year progress in each of the areas covered by the toolkit. The indicators must be developed and the data sets identified.
• Mission to a port nominated by the IDB to review the implementation of the toolkit, and assess the relevance and robustness of the framework.