10.06.2002

On June 3-7 this year a group of 20 representatives of the commercial mission from the Coruna district in Northern Spain were visiting Poland. The delegates' major objective was to find out about Poland's ports and maritime business, as well as about the conditions for the fishery.

The mission had been arranged by the Polish-Spanish Chamber of Commerce in co-operation with the Commercial, Industrial and Shipping Chamber of the La Coruna district. Piloting the mission, the Polish Chamber of Maritime Economy also played the role of the visit's main business agenda organizer.

Among the delegates there were, inter alia: President of La Coruna Seaport - Mr. Antonio Couceiro, President of Vigo Seaport - Julio Pedrosa, Vice-President of the La Coruna Chamber of Commerce - Jose Maria Ozores and the delegates representing shipyards and ship owners from the Galician district.

On the last day but one the members of the mission paid a visit to the Port of Gdansk. During the two-hour boat cruise around the Inner Port the Spanish guests were shown port's versatile cargo handling terminals, as well as the business profile of the Port of Gdansk Authority, as the managing company of the port grounds.

At the conclusion of their visit the delegates received the invitation to the Harbour Master's Office of the Northern Port. There the meeting was held and the visitors took the opportunity to have a bird's eye view over the extended range of port's facilities from the top of the tower. Furthermore, they found out about the most significant components of the port's development and land use project. The final stage of the visit included the slides presentation prepared especially for the event and conducted by Dariusz Grzegorkiewicz - Chief Strategic Communications Officer of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA.

The members of the mission expressed their interest in the expansion potential of the Port of Gdansk, in particular, the provision of new connections with the hinterland. The future possibilities were discussed to start a co-operation, as, for some time now the Baltic Sea region has been of great interest to Spanish ports. With the view to undertaking development enterprises in this area the delegates had previously visited Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Russia, though - as they admitted - a four-day visit to Poland appeared the most promising to them.