2020 was without a doubt a challenging year for all of us. Nobody expected the adversities dictated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the negative impact on the global economy, but we endured it. At the Port of Beira we had to reinvent ourselves and with that, also reinvent the way we work. Because we were dealing with a new disease, we needed to remain in touch with credible information about it, analyse, design, implement and adapt internal strategies aimed at ensuring that our port remained safe and free from this disease.Covid-19 has taught us that unity is strength. As with any new process, it was not easy at first, as there was some resistance to compliance with measures by some stakeholders. The biggest change was undoubtedly the development of information systems to enable our clients to get the same customer service from the comfort of their homes, or offices. In the last 12 months alone we implemented several internal and client-facing systems with the aim of managing data and other information at the speed the situation required. Because of Covid travel restrictions, the software development processes used this time around were heavily reliant on an internal ownership of automation and processes. For that, we built robust internal capacity of our youthful staff, and ensured that they worked closely with service providers to ensure optimum quality of the solutions we created. Jan de Vries, executive managing director, Cornelder de Moçambique
