Author: AIVP
On sale date: Thursday, 11 August 2005
Type of document: Report
Type of activity: International Meetings
Location: America : Brazil : Rio de Janeiro
Language: English, French, Spanish

On 12th to 15th July last, the Latin-American section of AAPA (American Association of Port Authorities) held their annual Conference in Rio de Janiero in Brazil. The event was organised in collaboration with the Brazilian Association of Port Authorities (ABEPH). About 200 participants coming from all over South and Central America and the Carribean attended this event that included a session entitled "Opportunities in the optimisation of City Port relationships".

Olivier Lemaire, IACP General Manager, was invited by the organisation to present the recent work of IACP in favour of the development of city port relationships giving an international point of view. This session was also attended by Fernando Revuelta Belandia of the Port of Bilbao, member of the IACP Board of Administration, and Juan Carlos Venesia, Chairman of the Port of Rosario and IACP vice-President for South America.

The city – port issue, whether it be in its urban, economic or institutional dimension, is becoming of increasing importance for the South American ports confronted with the effects of globalisation. The development of the Asia-Pacific zone is considerably influencing the economy and, in consequence also, the port dynamics of the whole region. Apart from this, the privatisation, already well under way, of port terminals all over the region requires, port by port, the drawing up of strategic development plans including port, urban and environmental issues. Numerous examples of this were given during the conference. The concept of the "port community" and not simply of the port is becoming a factor of economic redevelopment in Latin-America as elsewhere. The regional port authorities are already widely convinced of this. In the context of their future actions, the Latin-American section of AAPA is envisaging to put more emphasis on the City - Port theme. IACP, who already have numerous Latin American ports as members, could be associated with these projects.