The Port of Gdansk at the European Economic Congress12.05.2014 9 May saw the closing of the 6th European Economic Congress in Katowice - one of the major economy-focused events in Central Europe. The three-day debates featuring high-profile experts in politics, business, science and economy covered a hundred of themed sessions and gathered six thousand participants, both from Poland and abroad. The Port of Gdansk also marked its presence at the Congress in Katowice. The participants had an opportunity to learn about the port's current business offer and development plans as they visited the Port of Gdansk's promotional exhibition stand. The first day's proceedings were attended by Jerzy Melaniuk, PGA SA Vice President for Infrastructure. On the following day, during the three panel discussions, the Port's contribution to building Poland's economic potential was discussed by Dorota Raben, PGA SA President of the Board. In each of these sessions - focused on perspectives and challenges for the cargo transport industry, examining the logistics structure in Europe and analyzing its specific component: transport corridors - the Polish ports played the leading role. The EEC 2014 - marking the 10th anniversary of the expansion of the European Union by the Central European states - also summarized the decade of Poland's presence among the leading economies in this part of the world. The European Union has duly recognized the Port of Gdansk's current business offer and throughput capacity and listed the port - together with Gdynia - among the TEN-T basic ports. As part of the Baltic-Adriatic corridor development, the Port of Gdansk is getting ready for a new financial perspective, submitting projects related to the modernisation of its land and sea access infrastructure. The cargo turnover structure in the port has clearly changed over the recent years, resulted from the growing importance of the facility's universal nature as adopted in the port strategy and from expanding its capacity for handling containerised cargo and intermodal transport. Both the new and expanded terminals in the Port of Gdansk are aimed at maximising ocean shipping services. In addition to the port's hydrographic advantages, this goal is further supported by its spatial development prospects, such as providing a large distribution and logistics centre in the immediate vicinity of the port's deepwater terminals and cargo handling facilities. The significance of ports for the Polish economy depends on their growth rate. Taking advantage of the opportunity presented to ports of co-financing investment projects by the European Union is set to confirm Poland's position as the logistics hub for the entire Central and Eastern Europe. Janusz Kasprowicz PGA SA PR Officer |