IAPH WORLD PORTS CONFERENCE FOCUSED ON MAJOR CHALLENGES FACING THE PORT INDUSTRY

Event held in Abu Dhabi brought together a select range of speakers and industry players.

The world port community met in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, around the World Ports Conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) 2023, a meeting that was successfully held from October 31 to November 2 and that put at the center of the debate the issues that most concern the world’s ports: the energy transition, the needs of customers and port leadership in transcendental aspects for their good performance such as governance, among other areas.

The event, which was attended by the general manager of MundoMarítimo, Victor Gallardo, was attended by 30 speakers of the highest international level, highlighting the presence of Kitack Lim, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO); Ricardo Treviño, Deputy Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO); Sebastien Dessus, Director of the Global Trade and Regional Integration Unit of the World Bank and Sahar Rashidbeigi, global director of decarbonization of APM Terminals.

One of the aspects that made this meeting interesting, according to Patrick Verheoven, Managing Director, IAPH, was that it was held just between the MEPC 80 held in July and the COP 28 to be held in December. This is especially due to the energy transition process that is gaining momentum in the port industry.
The needs of the port sector’s end customers were not left out of the discussion and included the participation of beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) in one of the panels, which resulted in a session that discussed how the port community can work across the supply chain to share data and improve collaboration to meet the requirements of port users.

It also discussed the port industry’s leadership in terms of governance and reflected on the needs of the port sector in the future.

Sustainability Awards #IAPH2023

One of the key moments of the IAPH World Ports Conference took place during the official gala dinner held on November 1 with the #IAPH2023 Sustainability Awards.

In this version of the awards, the South Korean ports were recognized for winning three of the six categories; the award obtained by Puerto Dock Sud of Argentina won the Community Outreach category. The Port of Halifax was also distinguished with the award for Digitalization and the insular Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife won in Climate and Energy.

In addition, three distinguished personalities were honored for their outstanding contributions to the Association, being granted honorary life membership in the IAPH. Among them were Kitack Lim, outgoing IMO Secretary General; outgoing IAPH President Captain K. Subranamiam; Robin Silvester, outgoing IAPH Regional Vice President for North America and former CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.