There are those countries that have it ‘on the agenda’ but do not address it in a timely way – Poland is one, discussed in this issue. There are those that have a national port plan but leave it too long before updating. And then there are others who develop a national port plan but go about it the wrong way, the most common mistake being to implement engineering led national port planning as opposed to formulating infrastructure and superstructure requirements after comprehensive market studies looking at volume development by commodity, shipping system evolution, interfacing infrastructure requirements and so on.
All these scenarios can prove costly in financial terms and generally as regards meeting stakeholder requirements. Too much capacity too soon or too little too late are two key manifestations of getting it wrong but the negative impact can also extend into other important aspects such as a loss of investor confidence in investing in individual port platforms.
Without an effective national port strategy in place it can, for example, lead to multiple port platforms within the same national borders promoting schemes that are heavily in competition with each other and which ultimately, due to a lack of coordination, lead to a waste of valuable resource and poor returns in one or more of the ports involved. Certainly, this is a view confirmed in the revealing report from the European Court of Auditors, “Maritime transport in the EU: in troubled waters —much ineffective and unsustainable investment.”
Experience tells us that it is not unusual for individual ports, supported by local and/or regional politicians, to place aspiration above logic when pursuing high cost major expansion schemes. Similarly, there are those that pursue schemes that are the product of incomplete or bad advice – often suffering from the pitfall referenced above of not enough emphasis on market analysis and too much on engineering.
National port planning, properly implemented, provides a rational framework for port development to take place in – one where expansion works are undertaken on a coordinated basis and with controls that minimise risk and as such build investor confidence. The private sector is today a leading participant in port investment, and port planning at a national level is an essential ingredient of the good governance required to consolidate and expand essential private sector investment.
