Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.16
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Baku is one of main hubs along Belt and Road Initiative, Chairman of the Port of Barcelona Santiago Garcia-Milà told Trend.
“I would like to highlight the great impact of the IAPH Baku World Ports conference in the port sector. With more than 400 participants from 65 countries and the high level of the working sessions Baku conference was the most successful and well-attended mid-term conference of IAPH. Undoubtedly, it promoted the role of Baku as one of the main hubs along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),” he said.
Regarding the possibilities of cooperation between the Port of Baku and the Port of Barcelona, Santiago Garcia-Milà said that such a collaboration may not be developed in the near future due to different geographical location of the ports.
“As far as the collaboration between the Port of Barcelona and the Baku Sea Trade Port is concerned, please take into account that the location of the Port of Barcelona determine that its cooperation strategy is focussed in the Mediterranean/ South European area. In the recent years, the Port of Barcelona has been developing cooperation projects with other maritime ports in the Mediterranean area and its strategic plan establishes as a priority to continue with this strategy for the next years. This means that the collaboration of the Port of Barcelona with the Port of Baku, located in a different geographic area, may not be developed in the near future,” he said.
The cargo transshipment potential of the Port of Baku, which opened on May 14, 2018, is 15 million tons in the first phase, including 100,000 containers per year.
Seven berths of 12 existing ones serve dry cargo vessels, two berths serve ferries, and other two berths serve vessels of Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax type. Another berth is used for the maintenance of the fleet of the port.
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