Last June 27th, the Port Authority of the Algeciras Bay (APBA) was the protagonist of the event of the Intergroup of the European Commission SEArica (Sea, rivers, island and coastal areas), entitled “Ports as Hubs of the Blue Economy“. This meeting was organised with the support of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions and co-organised by the AspBAN project, in which the Port of Algeciras participates, and took place at the headquarters of the European Parliament.
The conference, presented and moderated by MEP Deirdre Clune, Vice-President of SEArica for the Atlantic, served as the epicentre of the debate on the role of the ports to become centres of the sustainable blue economy and on how the European Union should support this green transition, for example, with the development of flagship projects such as AspBAN, with which establish a dynamic network of collaboration that catalyses open innovation and promotes the diversification of business models in the maritime and port sector.
The opening speech was given by Drune herself, who presented the potential of port enclaves to achieve the European decarbonisation objectives, highlighting their role in the transition to the green economy, but also their capacity to attract innovative solutions from other sectors to strengthen their business.
Following, it was the turn of Ana Pinela, Senior Innovation Consultant at Beta-i and Project Manager of AspBAN, who was in charge of highlighting the milestones achieved during the 2 years of the project. In particular, she highlighted the continuous development of the innovation acceleration platform deployed, with which to help ports to transform themselves into creators of port clusters. She concluded his presentation by sharing with the audience the successful final result of the project: the development of up to 20 pilot projects in the Atlantic ports.
The second part of the day was attended by several members of the project, who presented the results obtained and reflected on the future of such initiatives to further promote real change in the industry. Representing the APBA was Jesús Medina, Head of the Technological Development Area, who during his speech, put the focus on detailing how the Port of Algeciras works to evolve towards the concept of Ultimate Generation Port of Algeciras, mainly through innovation, digitisation and data, or sustainability and energy transition. Medina positively valued the fruits of the programme, where there are several pilots on the table, which together with the solutions already implemented will allow positioning the Port of Algeciras as an active centre of the Blue Economy. Finally, he wanted to highlight the importance of these initiatives to accelerate the digital transformation of the ports and to identify innovative solutions at international level with which to promote the competitiveness of the sector.
The event concluded with the participation of authoritative voices within the European Commission, including Christos Economou, Head of Unit for Maritime Basin Strategies, Regional Maritime Cooperation and Maritime Safety of Directorate General (DG) MARE; Eddy Liegeois, Head of Unit for Transport Networks of DG MOVE; and MEP Josianne Cutajar, SEArica Vice-President for SMEs and Digitalisation. They expressed how collaboration between ports can yield great achievements and expand its impact beyond the regional dimension and contribute to the promotion of sustainability, with maritime spaces of open innovation, leading the decarbonisation of transport.
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