By George Vaggelas
Following a series of delays in the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) privatization process that started back in 2010, it seems (?) that the long suffering privatization will come into an end on early December with the submission of the economic offers from the interested bidders. PortEconomics member George Vaggelas contributes to the latest issue of “Naftika Chronika” magazine with his viepoint on the latest developments regarding the privatization of the biggest Greek port.
Despite the fast approaching deadline, the Greek government not only hasn’t solved some major issues related with the privatization process and the “next day” at the biggest Greek port, but on the contrary created new ones acting as a burden to the whole process. A stagnated issue is the concession contract between the Greek State and the Piraeus Port Authority S.A. which need to be revised prior the privatization, for which the Greek government still has not undertaken the appropriate actions. Apart from this the Greek governent raised the issues of the development of a Public Port Authority at the port of Piraeus as well as the exclusion of several parts of the port land zone from the privatization process and their granting to local fovernment bodies. George’s article analyses the drawbacks that these issues pose to the privatization process and the future potentials of the port of Piraeus, raising also some concerns on their legitimacy.
The article (in Greek) can be freely downloaded @ PortEconomics.eu,
