Morocco’s PORTNET platform has earned international recognition as a model for trade digitalization. UNCTAD’s latest maritime report highlights its role in boosting efficiency, transparency, and competitiveness across the country’s ports.
Morocco’s push to modernize its trade infrastructure has received global praise. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has recognized the country’s PORTNET system as a model of maritime digitalization, describing it as a practice that other developing nations can learn from.
In its 2025 Review of Maritime Transport released last week in Geneva, UNCTAD devoted a detailed analysis to PORTNET, the electronic single window that connects public institutions, shipping agents, and traders across Morocco’s ports. The report underlined its impact on transparency, logistics coordination, and compliance with international trade rules.
“The Moroccan PORTNET system is an example of successful cooperation between the public and private sectors. It has improved maritime connectivity, logistics performance, and compliance with international commitments such as the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement,” said Hassiba Benamara, an economist with UNCTAD’s Trade Logistics Branch, during a press conference.
PORTNET was launched in 2011 as a maritime single window with three modules: the maritime manifest, arrival notice, and berth allocation request. In 2015, its scope expanded to include all procedures related to international trade. Today, the platform operates across 14 ports overseen by the National Ports Agency (ANP) and connects more than 42 public institutions. It now provides 120 services, ranging from customs clearance to ship arrival and departure formalities.
The system processes about 5,000 transactions daily. Import licenses that once took five days to approve are now completed in just three hours. This efficiency has bolstered Morocco’s trade competitiveness, with maritime transport accounting for more than 95 percent of the country’s import and export flows.
| Read More: Geraint Evans: Morocco Reaps Rewards of Ambitious Port Strategy |
For Céline Bacrot, economist at UNCTAD’s Technology and Logistics Division, the platform reflects a dual achievement. “This system works thanks to a strong public-private partnership. The Moroccan state created a framework attentive to business needs, while a deep digital reform has drastically reduced delays and logistics costs,” she told Morocco’s state news agency MAP.
The numbers tell the story. PORTNET now has over 99,000 users, including 80,000 economic operators and 1,800 freight forwarders. In 95 percent of cases, data only needs to be submitted once, streamlining trade flows and reinforcing trust between businesses and government agencies.
UNCTAD also highlighted the performance of Tanger Med, the flagship port that has become a key transshipment hub at the gateway to the Mediterranean. Its success, supported by PORTNET’s digital systems, has been reinforced by recent global supply chain disruptions such as the Suez Canal blockage.
“This success is above all the result of endogenous factors. Tanger Med is today a model for logistics investment and port efficiency, attracting major shipping companies seeking reliability and high value-added services,” Bacrot said.
For UNCTAD, Morocco’s case demonstrates how strategic vision, digital reform, and collaborative governance can transform a national port system into a global reference point.
