By Sebastián Betancourt
The launch of the Single Maritime Window (Vumar) in the ports of the Valparaíso Region, scheduled for next November 3, is approaching the stipulated date, after being postponed on two previous occasions due to the presence of operational issues with the platform.
The implementation of the system was initially scheduled for last July 28, but a series of problems that were warned by the National Association of Ship Agencies (Asonave A.G.) forced the rescheduling of the timeline, setting October 6 as the start date in the central zone. However, Asonave later reiterated the persistence of difficulties and requested a postponement of its entry into force, so it was again postponed to November 3.
A few days before the final deadline, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, stated that the ministry continues to work on the operability of Vumar, while the set date is maintained according to the last modification.
“We are working on that and to the extent that we continue to believe that everything is available and adequate to move forward, that date – November 3 – should be maintained,” indicated the head of the ministry.
The head of the organization commented that “this is a process that is extraordinarily strategic for maritime transport and for the efficiency of national logistics, it is a process that has been created, designed, imagined and, now, operated by the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications.”
“What it seeks is that the ships that call at our country can do so in the most expeditious way possible, facilitating all the documentation that each of these operations requires from the different State agencies and the private sector in order to generate a cargo transfer that is safe, efficient and that complies with our national regulations,” highlighted Muñoz.
Regarding the development of the process to implement the system, the authority commented that “this began to be designed a long time ago, but it began operating in April of this year, the last day of March in the Bio Bio Region with all the ports and, like any initiation, it is done gradually geographically and was not free of some inconveniences that we overcame over time, some processes that were slower.”
“Let us remember that here it is not enough for the Ministry of Transport to do its job, it also requires that all the other agencies understand the urgency and carry out the necessary training. In that process we advanced to be able to move to the next zone, both in the ports of the northern zone of the country, which are already operational, and now comes the Valparaíso Region,” remarked the minister.
“The most important ports there are Valparaíso and San Antonio, which start on November 3. We have been taking precautions so that the learnings from the previous zones are adapted and incorporated into the implementation in these, which are the main ports of Chile. Once the implementation of Vumar in the Valparaíso Region is completed, we will move to the entire southern sector of the country for the ports of the Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes regions,” explained Muñoz.
