At the meeting of the Distribution Committee of the Interport Compensation Fund

30 'pre-commercial projects' selected to receive a total of €11.1 million from the Ports 4.0 Fund

• The Distribution Committee has also given the green light to the update of the programme of actions, contributions and budget 2024 of the Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility

2-10-2023 (State Ports Public Body). The Distribution Committee of the Interport Compensation Fund, meeting today in Madrid, has approved the provisional resolution of the granting of subsidies by Puertos del Estado, in the form of pre-commercial projects, corresponding to the 2022 call, of the Ports 4.0 Fund.

A total of 116 applications were submitted to the call, of which 95 were accepted and finally 30 have been proposed for the allocation of aid, for a total of 11.1 million euros. The selected projects cover the entire range of verticals established in the regulatory bases and a wide territorial distribution of the facilitating agents. In addition, it highlights the continuity of ideas subsidized in previous calls, which shows the evolution of the projects.

With the new budget that was approved at the meeting of the Distribution Committee held last June, it is planned to launch new calls for the Ports 4.0 Fund before the end of 2023 and in 2024.

Likewise, the Distribution Committee of the Interport Compensation Fund has approved the final distribution proposal for 2023 and the initial distribution proposal of the Fund for 2024 where it has been approved to distribute 36.1 million euros, of which 14.6 million correspond to the "Other criteria" section of article 159.b) of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy. In addition, it has been approved to maintain the same percentage of 5% of the Port Authorities' contribution to the Fund for 2024, except for the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla and Seville, which will be 2.5%, including the additional 1% for Ports 4.0.

The Committee has also given the green light to the update of the programme of actions of the Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility derived from the Business Plans for 2024, as well as the Fund's budget for next year.

The president of Puertos del Estado, Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena, in his initial report, stressed that the evolution of traffic reveals "a slowdown in world trade in a context of uncertainty and sluggishness in the main economies, despite the moderation in energy prices". Between January and August, Spanish ports moved 365.5 million tonnes, 4.1% less than in the same period of the previous year. Passenger traffic, however, shows a strong and sustained recovery, especially noteworthy in the case of cruise ships.