In 2019, Port of Antwerp signed MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with ports all over the world in order to foster a wider partnership aimed at tackling future challenges together and achieving higher levels of performance.
The first MoU of the year was signed with Montreal Port Authority, an extension and broadening of another agreement signed back in 2016. Under the new MoU a project plan is being set up focusing on solutions for mobility, energy transition, sustainability and security.
This was followed by MoUs with Port of Buenos Aires, Port of New York and New Jersey and the French umbrella organisation Hauts-de-France.
These smaller agreements concerned shared promotional activities and more intensive collaboration. They included agreements on sharing logistics information, exchanging new findings on innovation and digitisation, and generating new trade flows. But in all cases the wider aim was to develop together as ports of the future.
'We found that there are great similarities between our long-term vision and those of our partners,' explains Wim Dillen, International Development Manager at Port of Antwerp. 'We hope to learn from one another by sharing best practices in innovation, digitisation, promotion and business development. By so doing we will develop together in a sustainable way and improve our services for international shippers, forwarders and shipping lines.'
The collaboration extends not only to ports. An MoU was signed on 18 September with the Moravia-Silesia region of the Czech Republic and the Czech rail company SŽDC for the development of a new rail container terminal, with the aim of setting up a rail link between Antwerp and the Mošnov industrial zone. In this way products from the Czech heartland will easily be able to reach Antwerp in a sustainable way and vice versa.
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