For the first time, Puertos del Estado takes joint strategic action for the Canary Islands
- Salvador de la Encina: "Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife are unique Port Authorities due to their location and share interests that need to be promoted; without a doubt, they constitute the spearheads of the state-owned system in the mid Atlantic and are the key to northbound-southbound traffic".
- The management of PdE is backing up the first joint meeting of Port Authorities, seeking to find partnership channels and to improve their results, in light of the challenges posed by new TEU international traffic and development in West Africa.
10-25-2019 (Ministry of Development). Puertos del Estado has called a meeting in Madrid amongst the new presidents of port authorities in the Canary Islands in order to act as partners when designing joint strategic action, in order to redirect their latest trend in statistics derived from changes in some types of key traffic, such as international container traffic (TEUs).
Salvador de la Encina, president of Puertos del Estado, has added that "Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife are unique Port Authorities due to their location and share interests that need to be promoted; without a doubt, they constitute the spearheads of the state-owned port system in the mid Atlantic and are key ports in northbound-southbound traffic".
This is the first time a meeting of this kind has been held amongst senior managers in state-owned ports, seeking to find common ground in order to reactivate the economy related to both port authorities, thus creating and consolidating jobs. Let us recall that Spain's general interest port system consists of 28 Port Authorities, operating in inter-port competence terms, "but also following criteria based on institutional loyalty and cooperation, the secret to our strength as a system in global logistics chains".
Given the extraordinary nature of this meeting, attended by the president of the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Luis Ibarra, and the president and manager of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Carlos González and Aitor Acha, De la Encina convened the managers of Planning & Development, Álvaro Rodríguez, Exploitation, Leandro Melgar, and Corporate, Magec Montesdeoca, in addition to directors of Puertos del Estado on both boards, Ana María García on behalf of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Jesús Requena representing Las Palmas.
This first meeting resulted in two strategic lines of work: updating certain rates towards the recovery of other types of traffic, and port development outside capital cities.
Puertos del Estado's approach, shared by both Port Authorities, is based on reaching a consensus on action that is beneficial for their economies and statistics, applying it in equal terms to avoid the natural competition inherent to their relations currently hindering their potential for growth.
This is why PdE's senior management has backed up this first joint meeting seeking to find common ground in light of the challenges raised by new types of international traffic (TEUs) and the development of West Africa.
On behalf of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Carlos González in turn raised the need to rearrange the inner harbor at Los Cristianos, to promote naval repair, to continue the Granadilla works project, and to study port/city actions in greater depth.
As regards the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Luis Ibarra upheld the need to move forward in Human Resources matters; he pointed out possible solutions to the current issues of international container traffic and vouched for a feasible mega-yacht project, as a magnet to capture new types of traffic and diversify port activity.
Salvador de la Encina thanked them for their readiness to work together in order to generate shared benefits, offering "a stronger position" against the negative trend registered in the figures of both ports.
"They will not be alone in the task to spike up port statistics, given that essentially the fight is in favor of creating thousands of direct, indirect and induced long-term jobs in the Canary Islands", the president of Puertos del Estado ended by saying, after promising to visit both ports before the end of the year.
