UPS President for Indian subcontinent, Middle East, and Africa Jean-Francois Condamine on the e-commerce boom in the Middle East, promoting sustainability in the logistics industry, and empowering small and medium enterprises to become regional and global exporters.

Key Takeaways:
0:00 Intro
1:10 Jean-Francois talks a little bit about the current state of the logistics industry in the Middle East
2:00 Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince launches National Transport and Logistics Strategy (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2021/06/30/Saudi-Arabia-s-Crown-Prince-launches-National-Transport-and-Logistics-Strategy)
5:05 E-commerce in the region set to be worth $48bn by 2022 (https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/e-commerce-in-the-region-set-to-be-worth-48bn-by-2022-1.745643)
6:16 2020 UPS Corporate Sustainability Report (https://about.ups.com/us/en/social-impact/environment/climate/2020-ups-corporate-sustainability-report.html)
8:55 Jean-Francois explains if the new Saudi strategy is trying to compliment or  compete with UAE in terms of positioning in the logistics industry
12:08 Jean-Francois talks about the trends in terms of the e-commerce companies looking to enter the Saudi market, the challenges they face, and if the market is expanding
14:01 Jean-Francois talks about digitalization and how it enables the ease of doing business and facilitation
15:25 Jean-Francois talks about the similar characteristics that the best-emerging markets have other markets could learn from for them to also be good
17:36 Jean-Francois talks about how different economies pivoted and sort of transformed themselves during the pandemic
18:00 Dubai restructures business chambers to lead 'economic transformation' (https://www.arabianbusiness.com/politics-economics/465250-dubai-restructure-business-chambers-to-lead-economic-transformation)
19:44 Jean-Francois talks about the role that UPS is playing and the programs that it has embarked on in helping the SMEs expand in the market
20:28 The impact of SMEs on the UAE's economy (https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/business/crowdfunding/the-impact-of-smes-on-the-uae-economy)
21:24 UPS Women Exporters Program (https://www.ups.com/us/en/services/small-business/women-exporters-program.page)
25:14 Jean-Francois talks about why the SMEs need to be exporting their products outside of their own geography
26:18 UPS Smart Logistics Challenge - AstroLabs (https://astrolabs.com/ups-smart-logistics-challenge#:~:text=UPS%20partnered%20with%20AstroLabs%20in%20advance%20of%20Expo,solutions%20with%20UPS%20in%20an%20emerging%20markets%20context.)
26:45 Jean-Francois talks about why they decided to partner with logistics startups rather than compete with them
29:30 Jean-Francois talks about what they are focusing on in the logistics technologies that they need to pay attention to that could be exciting in the next decade
30:53 Jean-Francois explains if we should expect to see an all-electric lead in the region and why it is important
31:54 Jean-Francois talks about the short term changes that he would like to see in the region pertaining to increase in GDP and economic activities

Shows Mentioned:
Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/
G-Market: http://global.gmarket.co.kr/Home/Main
Expo 2020: https://www.expo2020dubai.com/
SMBs or SMEs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_and_medium-sized_enterprises
AstroLabs: http://astrolabs.com/

Quotes Mentioned:
“You cannot be unsustainable.”
“The biggest mall in Dubai is open during the night.”
“There is always room to grow.”
“What the pandemic brought very clearly is a change in consumption.”
“Be humble because if you are not humble, you miss a step.”
“Delivering a package will still remain A to B and doing it right the first time.”
“Put people at parity with compliance.”
“Compliance is the key.”

Guests Social Media Links:
Website: https://www.ups.com/us/en/Home.page?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-francois-condamine-b634318/?originalSubdomain=ae