The competitiveness and innovation of seaports - the Port of Gdansk as a strategic partner of the 5th Nationwide Maritime Law Conference

29.02.2016

On 25-26 February 2016, the 5th Nationwide Maritime Law Conference was held at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdansk and the Port of Gdansk Authority SA was one of its strategic partners.

This year's edition of the conference was dedicated to the subject of "Seaports - competitiveness and innovation". Relatively broadly-defined port-related issues were discussed, beginning with the legal and organisational structure of port management boards, through environmental management systems and port development strategies, to issues concerning ports' competitiveness and their sustainable development.

The Port of Gdansk was represented by Dorota Raben, President of the Board of the PGA SA, who participated in the panel dedicated to competitiveness and innovation, and, together with other participants in the debate, including representatives of the local authorities and the municipality, reported on the current situation at the Port of Gdansk to the conference participants. She discussed the way in which Gdansk port is successively improving its competitiveness and position, not only on the domestic, but also international market, where innovation and modernisation of logistics solutions are particularly important and appreciated.

The infrastructural changes currently taking place at the port include a very broad spectrum of issues, such as investments in handling terminals and access infrastructure (both at sea and on land), but also investments increasing safety at the port, as well as hydrotechnical and teletechnical undertakings. During the debate, the considerable importance of the investments being carried out by the local authorities, the Maritime Office and private investors was emphasised, as alongside the ventures initiated by PGA SA, they play an important role in the process of successively and consistently building the position of Polish ports in the logistics market.

It is thanks to them that we regularly achieve record transshipments. As a result of the numerous investments made, a huge improvement in the ports' access conditions took place. This, in turn, provides a sound basis for forecasting upward trends for the coming years, as well as growing interest in Polish ports, among which the Port of Gdansk recorded an 11% increase in transshipment volumes last year, reaching a record level of nearly 36 milion tonnes of transshipments and thereby gaining a 46.5% share of the Polish maritime market.