On the 13th, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe announced that, to strengthen the resilience of supply chains in the Gulf region and facilitate the circulation of key goods, the agency will rapidly issue three new United Nations codes for ports and related locations in the UAE and update ten existing code entries.
According to a press release from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the new and updated entries include important inland logistics hubs in the Gulf region such as Faya, Sharjah, Al Ain, and the Abu Dhabi strategic logistics corridor, involving rail freight stations, inland ports, inland logistics hubs, as well as industrial warehousing and distribution facilities.
The press release points out that these new and updated locations will strengthen the connection between industrial and warehousing hubs in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai and export gateways through inland logistics and multimodal transport corridors, including routes leading to Fujairah port or Jeddah port. These routes are significant alternatives to traditional maritime routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova said that UN logistics codes and the TIR Convention are global public goods that facilitate global trade and support the stability of international supply chains, helping to ensure that necessary transport and logistics operations can continue in the event of geopolitical tensions and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider region.
To respond to the alternative transport needs following an effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, in late April, the UNECE formally launched the "Gulf States Border Crossing Monitoring Platform," aiming to optimize goods planning and customs clearance processes for inland transportation in the Gulf region through integrated information.
The United Nations ports and related location codes are a cornerstone of global trade and transport infrastructure, with the code system identifying more than 114,000 locations across 249 countries and territories.