The port system analyses in Santander its model for the next ten years • Toledo: "The Strategic Framework is one of the essential axes of my Presidency and, in line with MITMA's policy, it is designed to generate added value and employment" • "Paraphrasing Seneca, agreeing on the ports we want in 2030 will allow us to take advantage of any wind to advance in that direction" • State Ports brings together the 28 Port Authorities to agree on the document that guarantees competitiveness, security, innovation and sustainability of Spanish port logistics 22-07-2020, Santander (Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda).
Puertos del Estado brings together these 22 and 23 July 2020, in Santander, the Spanish port system of general interest to agree on its development strategy for the next ten years. This agreement, which will be reflected in a new Strategic Framework (the current one dates back to 1998), will be essential to ensure an optimal positioning of Spanish ports in the transport and logistics networks of the future. The 'Seminar of analysis of the strategic development model' takes place at the Palacio de la Magdalena - with the collaboration of the Port Authority of Santander - and is a milestone for the port system, which thus closes a process of analysis and debate that began in 2019, in the citation of Palma de Mallorca.
The President of Puertos del Estado, Francisco Toledo, explains that "the Strategic Framework is one of the essential axes of my Presidency and its design is online, as it cannot be otherwise, with the policy marked from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA) aimed at promoting safe, sustainable and connected mobility, with which to generate added value and employment". Toledo adds that "the document leaving Santander will make Spanish ports better prepared for major changes in the transport and logistics sectors, and even be able to lead the necessary actions to help address the new challenges in relation to competitiveness, security, innovation and sustainability on a global scale". "As Seneca said, no wind is good for a sailor who doesn't know where to go," the president explains, "so agreeing on the ports we want in 2030 will allow us to take advantage of any wind to progress in that direction, while making it possible to align ourselves to work together for it."
In addition to President Toledo and the President of the Port Authority of Santander, Jaime González, who highlighted the "importance of hosting this city of the meeting where the ports throughout Spain will decide to cross the threshold of 21st century logistics", were present several local authorities such as Miguel Angel Revilla, President of Cantabria, who has commented that "ports are transcendental for the economy of Spain and has confident that soon they will recover activity lost as a result of the pandemic." Ainoa Quiñones, delegate of the government in Cantabria, who has emphasized that "Ports of the State is an essential infrastructure to determine a sustainable, inclusive, efficient, intelligent and green future of the country's economy, as it has the capacity to give impetus and support to companies, contributing to dynamization and competitiveness in an increasingly complex and global world". Quiñones has influenced that the modernization of ports is both a challenge and an opportunity for the future for which public administrations and institutions cannot waste a single minute. "If we want companies to innovenate, bet, increase and risk their growth, it is clear that we must provide them with the best infrastructure to expand their productive capacity which will obviously result in the creation of more jobs and, above all, better employment, quality employment."
The entourage of authorities that have received the presidents and directors of the Port Authorities also included Gema Igual, mayor of Santander and Felipe Piña, director of transport of the government of Cantabria. The mayor has positively appreciated this as the first meeting to be held after the rehabilitation works of the Palacio de la Magdalena.
SANTANDER AGENDA The agenda of the 'Seminar for the Analysis of the Strategic Development Model' that takes place on July 22 and 23 at the Palacio de la Magdalena de Santander includes four blocks of work: 1.- Block I. Results of surveys of companies and trade unions. Pre- and post-Covid-19 diagnostics. Port governance. 2.- Block II. Economic dimension. Financing. Soil. Infrastructure. Services. 3.- Block III. Innovation and environmental dimension. Digitization. Innovation and Sustainability. 4.- Block IV. Social dimension. Security. Port-city. Human capital. These thematic blocks focus on the 'Proposal of Basic Contents of the Strategic Framework of the Port System of General Interest', a dense document with 139 pages that includes 16 strategic lines and 56 general management objectives. The paper was commissioned by the State Ports Planning and Development Directorate. The dynamics of work were planned to have the active participation - at different levels - of the Port Authorities and the economic and social agents of the port sector, as well as of the administrations related to the sector. During the Meeting, we will also discuss the way forward to modernize a governance model that has been in place for more than two decades, and which must necessarily evolve to become a very dynamic and changing global logistics. The objective, in short, is to agree on the Strategic Framework of the Spanish port system of general interest for the next ten years.
HYGIENIC-SANITARIO PROTOCOL The organization of the Santander meeting is a real, and necessary, challenge in the context of the new normal. The vital importance of having an updated Strategic Framework, for ports and for the supply of the whole country and Europe, justifies its conclusion without further clarification. For this reason, Puertos del Estado has developed a hygienic-health protocol for the 'Strategic Development Model Analysis Seminar' in line with current regulations and recommendations. In compliance with the Resolution of the Ministry of Health of Cantabria of 15 July 2020, the mask will be mandatory, permanently, during transfers and throughout the holding of the working sessions. To facilitate compliance with regulations and recommendations, Puertos del Estado and the Port Authority of Santander have distributed individual hygienic packages (composed of mask and hydroalcoholic gel) in the participants' rooms. In addition, they have planned the collective transfer of the participants (between the hotel, the Palacio de la Magdalena and the visit to the port) to minimize contacts outside the working group and various hygienic supports during meetings. A temperature control has been enabled at the entrance of the Palace of the Magdalene. The various seminar providers have also been required to apply a specific hygienic protocol for the Covid-19.
