ANTWERP: In 2019 Port of Antwerp signed MoUs (Memoranda of
Understanding) with ports all over the world. Various project teams from
the different ports are working towards wider partnership aimed at
facing the challenges of the future together and achieving higher levels
of performance.
The first MoU of the year was signed with Montreal Port Authority. This
was an extension and broadening of another agreement signed in 2016.
Under the new MoU a project plan is being set up focusing on solutions
for mobility, energy transition, sustainability and security.
This was followed by MoUs with Port of Buenos Aires, Port of New York
New Jersey and the French umbrella organisation Hauts-de-France.
These smaller agreements concerned shared promotion activities and more
intensive collaboration. They included agreements on sharing logistics
information, exchanging new findings on innovation and digitisation, and
generating new trade flows. But in all cases the wider aim was to
develop together as ports of the future.
"We found that there are great similarities between our long-term
vision and those of our partners," explains Wim Dillen, International
Development Manager at Port of Antwerp. "We hope to learn from one
another by sharing best practices in innovation, digitisation, promotion
and business development. By so doing we will develop together in a
sustainable way and improve our services for international shippers,
forwarders and shipping lines."
Collaboration for sustainable transport
The collaboration extends not only to ports. An MoU was signed on 18
September with the Moravia-Silesia region of the Czech Republic and the
Czech rail company SŽDC for development of a new rail container
terminal, with the aim of setting up a rail link between Antwerp and the
Mošnov industrial zone. In this way products from the Czech heartland
will be able to reach Antwerp and vice-versa easily in a sustainable
way, said an Antwerp Port statement.
