Port of Rijeka Authority awarded for contribution to development of maritime economy

Days of Maritime and Inland Navigation were held in Novalja, on the island of Pag, organized by the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, on the feast of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of seafarers. The celebration of Maritime Day began with the traditional laying of a wreath at sea, for all those who lost their lives, and continued with the Conference on Maritime Affairs and Inland Navigation and the ceremonial academy, which awarded prizes for contributions to maritime affairs.

Among the winners is the Port of Rijeka Authority, for its contribution to the development of the maritime economy by implementing the project of a new Zagreb Deep Sea container terminal, for which a concession agreement was recently signed with APM Terminals and domestic company ENNA Logic.

After laying wreaths from the VID ship of the Port of Rijeka Authority, the conference was attended by representatives of numerous maritime institutions and companies, opened by Josip Bilaver, State Secretary for the Sea and EU Funds at the Ministry of the Sea. and Inland Navigation for  Croatia, with finding solutions for their further improvement with professional knowledge.

– The past year, as well as the one before it, was marked by numerous problems related to the pandemic in the maritime sector, for the solution of which the Ministry adopted a series of measures to help seafarers and the maritime economy.

The year was also marked by numerous projects in a number of ports open to public transport, more than thirty of them, but also the awarding of several very important concessions. These are concessions for a special purpose port, a nautical marina in Porto Baroš, which is of great importance for Rijeka, the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and the nautical sector of the whole of Croatia.

Bilaver dedicated most of his presentation to investments, stating that the entire fleet of all port authorities in Croatia will be renewed in the next four to five years, and announced a new legislative framework for both coastal liner and inland waterway transport. the adoption of a new, long-awaited Law on Maritime Domain, for the preparation of which a working group was formed, which should pass a bill for public debate in the middle of next year.

Bilaver also announced investments within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as co-financing from European funds, primarily through the Competitiveness and Cohesion Program, which was discussed in detail by Ina Topic from the EU Funds and Strategic Planning Authority.

She announced the four most important groups of investments from the recovery plan, in the modernization of ports open to public traffic, a new ferry on the river Drava, equipping ports with waste collection infrastructure and the largest – the purchase of six new coastal liner vessels, three ferries and three catamarans powered by alternative plants. on electricity.

As for the Competitiveness and Cohesion program, she said that program documentation was being prepared, and the total allocation for the transport sector in the period until 2027 is 1.26 billion euros, most of which will be invested in projects for the development of the European network of major transport corridor (TEN-T) on the territory of Croatia, as well as on the transport infrastructure for connection to the TEN-T transport network.

The conference program continued with two panel discussions. The first was dedicated to the new legislative framework, and participants were Nina Perko, director of the Maritime Administration in the Ministry of the Sea, Paula Vidović, director of the Coastal Shipping Agency, Jadranka Fržop, director of the Šibenik County Port Authority, and Davor Škibola, director of the Split-Dalmatia port authorities.

The second panel was attended by David Sopta, President of Jadrolinija, Marko Domjan from Atlantska plovidba and Ivan Pupovac from Tankerska plovidba as representatives of the Mare Nostrum Shipping Association, Predrag Čudina from Classic ship design and Mladen Merlak from the Hydrogen Association.

In this panel, the main topics were related to European regulations aimed at achieving a CO2-neutral maritime footprint by 2050, but participants outlined a number of obstacles that stand in the way.

The conference ended with a ceremonial academy, at which awards were presented to numerous deserving individuals and organizations in the navy, with the performance of the klapa of the Croatian Navy Sveti Juraj.

source: Novi List 6. 12. 2021.