8. International Maritime Congress with representatives from the Port of Gdańsk
On 14 September 2021, the International Maritime Congress was held in the Szczecin Philharmonic for the eighth time. It is one of the most important industry events devoted to maritime issues in Poland of international importance. The Ministry of Infrastructure took the honorary patronage and substantive supervision over the event. Attending the congress events were Łukasz Greinke, President of the Port of Gdańsk, Sławomir Michalewski, Vice-President for Financial Matters, Kamil Tarczewski, Vice-President for Infrastructure and Adam Kłos, Commercial Director.
The event provides a platform for discussion on the development of ports and the transport challenges of the future. The congress has long been an important part of the debate on Polish shipbuilding, maritime and inland navigation, and fishing. The opening speech was given by Marek Gróbarczyk, State Secretary, Government Plenipotentiary for Water Management and Investments in Marine and Water Management, Ministry of Infrastructure. The Minister emphasized the influence of the congress on shaping the directions of development for the maritime economy nationally, as well as the importance of ports and their huge strength in the pandemic era. He also expressed his thanks to the operators who contributed to the development of Polish ports. The development of Polish ports and offshore wind energy are key projects to be implemented in the near future – “Although the Covid period was very difficult, Polish ports through customs and levies added more than 30 billion PLN to the state budget. This is a huge injection, which shows the path we should follow,” said the Minister.
Łukasz Greinke, President of the Port of Gdańsk, took part in the first plenary debate opening the congress and spoke about the most important challenges facing the port. He stressed the great importance of being able to listen to the needs of operators acting in the port, as well as the cargo consignees – “It is very important to look at what is happening from the side of the sea, that of maritime transport operators. We stand at the threshold of systemic changes that will at some point prohibit ships from using their own drives and from generating electricity in ports. At the moment, our challenge is to equip the port infrastructure with OPS, Onshore Power Supply, to make our port even greener and lower the CO2 emissions within our port,” said the President of the Port of Gdańsk.
Investments meeting the expectations of customers and operators, such as the modernization of quays, dredging of water courses, road and rail investments, and the modernization of the breakwater system, which is possible thanks to cooperation with the Maritime Authority, are also crucial in order to increase cargo handling. He also underlined the current cooperation in PKP PLK and the elimination of “bottlenecks”, which are crucial for the capacity and continuity of supply chains. He also stressed the great importance of the legal environment and solutions aimed at facilitating the export and import of goods from and to the Port of Gdańsk. “Our aim is to be the port of choice for 590 products, that is those produced in our country, as well as the first choice for products imported not only into Poland, but also heading for our southern neighbours or to ports north of Gdańsk in the Baltic Sea. We use this critical mass when it comes to container handling. We have a very wide network of connections and we also want to use them on the New Silk Road in cooperation with PKP Cargo, which is now expanding the dry terminal in Małaszewicze. This is where we want to take over some of the cargoes that come from China for the markets of both Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. There is a lot happening in the Port of Gdańsk, and this is seen most clearly in the growth of our cargo handling. At the moment, investments are not slowing. According to the motto of Gdańsk, we are pursuing our objective bravely but not boldly,” summarized the President of the Port of Gdańsk.
On the second day of the congress, the commercial director of the Port of Gdańsk, Adam Kłos, took part in the panel “Water point of view – education and water management in Poland”. The participants of the debate were representatives of the State Water Holding “Wody Polskie” as well as the Department of Marine Economy and Inland Navigation, Ministry of Infrastructure. The experts discussed cooperation with universities, CSR activities, as well as supporting the startups so important for the education of the young generation in the field of water management.
Contact for the media:
Anna Drozd – spokesperson for the Port of Gdańsk
e-mail: anna.drozd@portgdansk.pl
tel: (+48) 727 064 605
