The Maritime Economy as a Smart Specialisation of the Pomeranian Region

29.01.2016

On 28 January 2016, as the leader of the Smart Port & City Partnership (Smart processes and technologies in the field of port complexes and their facilities as a generator of improvement in the communication and information accessibility of the Pomeranian Region), the Port of Gdansk Authority SA signed an agreement on the Smart Specialisations of the Pomeranian Region with the Marshal of the Pomeranian Region at the European Solidarity Centre.

In accordance with European Union recommendations, each Polish region should have a strategy of developing its Smart Specialisations, which will be based on its resources and function as a motor for the region's development. Hence, on 14 May 2014, the Office of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Region announced a competition concerning the Smart Specialisations of Pomerania.

The Pomeranian Region used a process of identifying Smart Specialisations that was unique on a national scale, taking the form of a grass-roots process involving partners oriented towards the needs of entrepreneurs to form Partnerships in order to develop the region's Smart Specialisations.

Entities and partnerships that wished to obtain a privileged position for a narrowly defined field of specialisation, represented by them, in the new round of financing from EU funds were invited to participate in the competition. In the course of the competition, in April 2015, the Marshal's Office and the Competition Board selected the four Specialisations with the greatest potential. One of them was the Maritime Specialisation, put forward by the Smart Port & City Partnership, which was registered, initiated, and coordinated by the Port of Gdansk Authority SA.

Smart Port & City, led by the Port of Gdansk Authority SA, comprises 61 partners, including representatives of both business and science: 24 enterprises and organisations, 10 higher education institutions and research institutes, 7 business-support non-profit organisations (clusters, chambers, agencies), as well as 8 advisory bodies and 12 other entities.

The Port of Gdansk Authority SA formed the Smart Port & City partnership to draw attention to the huge potential of the Polish maritime industry, which is not only a mine of Pomeranian entrepreneurship, but also a generator of new innovative solutions. Seaports and the wide range of port-related activity are generating more and more revenue for the local and central budget each year, thus becoming an important area of activity stimulating the Polish economy.

The huge potential of the specialisation suggested by the Port of Gdansk Authority SA was recognised by the Competition Board and the Marshal's Office, resulting in agreements on the Smart Specialisations of the Pomeranian Region being signed on 28 January 2016 by the Marshal of the Pomeranian Region, in relation to both the Maritime Specialisation and three others, connected with the power industry, medicine, and information technologies. The document was signed by around 300 representatives of entities participating in the process of defining the specialisations.

"We cannot image the specialisations of the Pomeranian Region without the sea and maritime economy, and consequently without the seaports, which play a crucial role for the economy of our region," said Dorota Raben, President of the Board of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA, during the event. "Our activities will involve introducing innovative solutions in several areas, including above all logistics, environmental protection, and tourism in Pomerania.

We are very proud that we have had the opportunity to take an active part in this entire process, and moreover, to be the initiator and the Leader of one of the Partnerships."

The ceremonial signing of the agreement was a crowning touch to the several years' worth of work of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA as the leader of the Smart Port & City Partnership, which aimed to see the maritime industry recognised as an important sector for Pomerania and a motor for its development. This also carried with it significant added value through establishing cooperation with representatives of the maritime industry, broadly defined, and led to integration of the representatives of various groups to which the maritime area constitutes a value in itself.