The new governance structure of French seaports is the theme of the port study presented by PortEconomics member Pierre Cariou along with Dagnet Frederic, from Grand Port Maritime de Marseille, France and Fedi Laurent, Euromed Management, France during the annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists – IAME 2013, that was held in Marseilles, France.
France undertook a large port reform in 2008 that entered into application in 2010–2011. It mostly applies a landlord port model to major French seaports, with the prediction that doing so will restore French port competiveness.
The port study presents the 2008 port reform, discusses why it was needed, and details how new governing bodies are sharing their responsibilities amongst themselves. To this end, a textual analysis of the agenda items for the governing bodies of the Marseille Port Authority, created since 2011, provides a means to compare the items discussed by the former management bodies. The study identifies a trend, in which the supervisory board focuses on global issues, the advisory board addresses local issues, and the board of directors considers internal issues.
You may freely download the paper @PortEconomics.
