Piraeus-NASPA New Maritime Silk Road MoU

Photo: Herbert Smith Freehills

The Piraeus Port Authority (PPA), controlled by the Chinese COSCO, has signed an agreement with the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority (NASPA).

The deal is aimed at strengthening cargo flows between Piraeus and NASPA's Venice and Chioggia. As such, the parties will jointly work on coordinating the development of their ports, incl. infrastructure and services, in order to facilitate freight flows between Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Far East. Also, they'll exchange best practices and know-how in port management, particularly in the fields of IT, communications, and attracting investments.

Pino Musolino, President, NASPA, commented, "In an upcoming scenario which foresees a powerful increase of trades between Asia and Europe along the new maritime Silk Road, it is necessary to put all our efforts on the rationalization of the logistics chains, starting from the ports and from the road connections with the inner markets, in order to shorten distances, to lower transports costs, to remove trucks from roads and improve the environmental sustainability of trades."

He furthered, "Through this agreement, which is coupled with the other recently signed with COSCO Shipping for a weekly connection Piraeus-Venice, we want to clearly show that the development of trades primarily requires commercial agreements, optimization of services and targeted infrastructure interventions. This is the right path to create value for our economy and for our territory."

Captain Fu Chengqiu, CEO, PPA, added to this, "The Port of Piraeus, the largest port of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, is an ideal hub between Asia and Central & Eastern Europe. It is the first deep sea EU port after crossing Suez Canal and offers combined transport solutions with efficient value added services for cargoes, which can be re-distributed by road, rail and sea. The establishment of our cooperation with the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority is targeting to strengthen the trade links between Asia and Mediterranean and to enhance the role of ports as engines for the European economy."