By George Vaggelas
The economic crisis and the implications on the Greek port system, as well as the ways leading to port survival, are the themes of a press article by PortEconomics member George Vaggelas published at the metaforespress.gr, a website exclusively dedicated to the Greek transport industry.
Based on the economic situation of Greece, the majority of Greek ports face reduced throughput and a detorioration of their financial results.
George suggests five pillars in order to overcome these difficulties. The first one is port specialisation, a strategy that would allow each port to take advantage of its significant potentials in prder to achieve a competitive advantage and, not least avoid the waste of tangible and intangible assets. The second pillar is the exploitation of synergies between the Greek ports, as well as the collaboartion between the Greek ports and ports in other places of the word. The goal in this case is to develop spatial comprehensive port (sub)systems which will provide a full range of port services to any kind of cargo, while it will allow the exchange of know-how.
The third pillar is the adoption of a ‘customer-centric’ policy, so that each port maintains and expands its market share. The fourth pillar includes strategic port investments. Based on the specifities of te economic environment, these investments need to focus on port infrastructures and superstructures which will assist port operators to increase both throughput and revenues. Finally, marketing and promotion are means towards a successful strategy to expand port hinterland and attract new cargoes.
