The 2nd edition of Saudi Transtec opened on Monday, with Faisal Ali Al-Zikin, deputy minister for transportation, and consultant presiding over the ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony. Supported by Ministry of Transportation, the event will continue till Wednesday.

The event is being held at a time when Saudi Arabia is making great strides to establish itself as a key global transport and logistics hub, the minister said, adding that the Kingdom is currently working on building an infrastructure of multimodal transportation, making it an attractive prospect for investors.

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority estimates that domestic cargo demand is expected to grow by a 4-5 percent compound annual rate through 2020, while international flows are expected to grow at 5 percent and 7-8 percent for air and sea cargo, respectively.

As an international transportation, materials handling, warehousing and logistics exhibition and conference, Saudi Transtec 2011 is set to provide an interactive platform for exploring the progress within a sector that has earned revenues of $13.78 billion in 2010, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan.

"We are very pleased to see a great achievement and 110 percent growth this year in Saudi Transtec from the first day of the exhibition with 1,598 registered attendees. 86 companies from 19 countries around the world such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, China, Germany, and Belgium are among the participants this year." The participating industries at the exhibition include freight, shipping, aviation, IT, ports, cargo, railways, materials handling equipment and service providers.

Bandar Al-Jabri, CEO of Al-Jabri Logistics, associate sponsor of Saudi Transtec 2011, said: "Knowing that the Kingdom is witnessing growth in the transport and logistics sector, supply is enabling excellent investment opportunities for global corporations and local companies that have an interest in the sector, the need for a strategically located transportation and logistics event is imperative."

A pinnacle aspect part of this year's conference is the participation and presentation by the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) as a participant and presenter.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Manie, chairman of the SCCI's National Transport Committee, chaired the opening session of the conference. Speakers on the panel used their experiences to address both the Kingdom's and Bahrain's challenges in logistics and weigh the various systems, uncovering ways of eliminating operational inefficiencies.

Paul Kinsella, regional operations manager, CHEP Middle East; Pieter Spaarwater, chief operating officer, Hala Supply Chain Services; and Naeem Ahmed, solutions architecture manager, SCCI, debated solutions for optimizing warehousing processes and overcoming supply chain challenges to curtail unnecessary increases in costs, with risks minimized.

ArabNews