Even though there is a huge diversity of governance structures and development paths, there is, at least a Europe, a common denominator, that was well phrased in the ESPO manifesto published last year:<\/p>\n
“…the traditional role of port authorities needs to be fundamentally revised. Port authorities that confine their role to conserving port land and regulating nautical safety will be unable to make a difference… Port authorities essentially have to become dynamic port developers and policy-makers need to give them the necessary means and tools to perform this role…”<\/em><\/p>\n This transition may require a shift away from authority, and towards leadership. As port developers, port authorities do not actually have any authority. Not over how freight flows are routed, not over prices and strategies of terminal opertors in their port, not over the modal split, and not over investments of (new) companies.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, port authorities have a key role as port developer and here contribute in a variety of ways to support a vital port complex.<\/p>\n One of the key roles of the port authority is to develop a long term port development vision, which strikes a good balance between economic and environmental goals as well as between the interests of local stakeholders (the port city and residents) and the interests of the global players operating in the port.<\/p>\n Furthermore, such a vision is only effective when embraced by all relevant stakeholders, including regional and national governments, that often make important investments for the port complex (such as landside access and education). Developing such a vision can not be based on authority, but it does require some sort of trusted leadership. Moving from the one to the other may be a small step on paper but a huge transition for the port authorities involved.<\/p>\n Less emphasis on ‘authority’ in the name and branding – or even renaming port authorities as as port development companies – may be worth considering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the ongoing evolution of port governance, many port authorities are being forced to re-think their role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-analyst"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}