The Port of Gdansk in... Rotterdam

13.11.2009

900 exhibitors from all over the world gathered in the 10 halls of the "Ahoy!" exhibition centre in Rotterdam. The area of 40 thousand square metres was not sufficient to accommodate all those willing to participate in another edition of the maritime exhibition "EUROPORT 2009", which opened on 3 November under the theme "Advanced Technology - Imagination Becoming Reality".

The significance of this year's maritime exhibition was emphasized by the attendance of Prime Minister of the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende. In his welcome address to the participants, he focused on the necessary worldwide consolidation of efforts aimed at saving the environment and the need of investing in innovative technologies. The wide-ranging agenda of "Europort 2009" also included Polish business offers. Thanks to the efforts of Poland's Ambassador to the Netherlands Janusz Stanczyk and Embassy's commercial advisor Tadeusz Postepski - all the Polish seaports and a variety of companies operating in the shipbuilding and shipping industry presented their offers at a jointly-held exhibition stand. At a special seminar led by Katarzyna Kurek of the Centre for Maritime Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the throughput capacity of Polish seaports was presented by, respectively, Marketing Director of the Port of Gdansk Authority Julian Skelnik, President of the Port of Gdynia Authority Janusz Jarosinski and Marketing Director of the Szczecin and Swinoujscie Port Authority Krzysztof Pilarski. Much of the participants' attention was particularly drawn to our development prospects and hydro-navigational conditions as well as the position we seek to achieve in the constantly changing geo-political and economic situation of the Baltic Sea Region countries. The role of the Port of Gdansk - mainly thanks to the rapidly growing young container terminal DCT - raised a lot of interest both among the seminar participants and those visiting the Polish exhibition stand alike. It was commonly held that the recent agreement concluded by Maersk and DCT to launch a direct shipping service between the Far East and Gdansk is bound to substantially change the transport network structure in the Baltic Sea Region.