From May 7th to May 12th 2017 the 30th World Ports Conference, hosted by the International Association of Ports and Harbours, was held in Bali. During this conference, MTBS Director Paul van Eulem moderated the discussion on Greenfield Ports and the Effect of Special Economic Zones on the Port Growths.
On the agenda of this discussion were the following topics.
– Various port and maritime projects development around the world, including challenges and opportunities encountered in the project;
– Environmental and other related aspects of new port development;
– The role of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to provide sustainable growth for a port; and
– The trajectory for port development in the future.
The increase in world’s freight flow, followed by technological innovation in maritime industry, demand development and revamp of infrastructure. World ports must be able to serve larger vessels, provide deeper channels, and also provide quicker and more efficient equipment. Many countries, including Indonesia, have invested massively in constructing New Ports/Greenfield Ports to anticipate the increase in demand and technological evolution, and also provide benefits to its host country. Although development of new ports has many opportunities and benefits, many challenges are also faced. Innovation in construction is a must as part of mature planning in order to achieve optimum results in the project. On the other hand, technological innovation in port operations goes hand in hand within port development planning due to pressure to provide a fast and efficient port.
Growth of a port in general, is dependent on surrounding industries. The more rapid industrial development in an area will increase served cargoes in a port, and also have implications on the increased service quality within the port. Several countries around the world have a concept named the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which can be defined as an industrial zone which possesses several incentives for its stakeholders. The SEZs shall be connected with international ports to provide the benefits of economic of scale and also through the reduction of logistic costs. The synergy between SEZ and the ports shall deliver multiplier effect both for traffic generation in the ports and industrial development in the SEZ area.c union of fifteen countries located in West Africa, representing 350 Million inhabitants.