Ukrainian Ports Forum

The main event of the Ukrainian port industry - Ukrainian Ports Forum 2019 was successfully held in Odesa on May 30-31st. The participants from 35 countries gathered to discuss a wide range of issues relevant for Ukrainian ports in the expert environment.

The key topics of the Forum are industry reform, joint projects with the EU on development of port and logistic infrastructure. The participants of the event - representatives of the government, the international community, Ukrainian and foreign investors, experts and market analysts - discussed within two days existing and prospective projects of public-private partnership in the port industry, the specifics of the handling of main types of cargo. In particular, agrarian, container, industrial cargo in Ukraine and in the world, various aspects of the implementation of investment projects.

"This year's Ukrainian Ports Forum has significantly surpassed itself, compared to last year, as a spectrum of topics proposed for discussion, as well as geography of the participants. Guests from 35 countries came to Odesa to discuss urgent issues of the port industry. We see a great interest to the Forum in the international and Ukrainian expert community and have ambitious plans to make the Ukrainian Ports Forum even larger - an important international event on the level not only of the Azov-Black Sea basin, but also for the countries of Europe and Asia." the Head of Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority Raivis Veckagans said.

In his speech, Head of USPA outlined the key obstacles that are currently hampering the development and investments in Ukrainian ports. He called for the adoption by the Parliament of a law on concessions and other industry bills as soon as possible, as well as the resolution of issues of excessive deductions to the budget, which the state enterprises of the port industry are compelled to pay. What is also important is the issue of Ukrainian companies' access to EU grants for projects in the port industry.

Also, Raivis Veckagans solemnly presented members of the Supervisory Board of the State Enterprise "USPA", emphasizing the need for further reformation of the port industry and corporatization of the company. "The creation of the USPA Supervisory Board is only the first step in the long way of transformation. Our goal is to ensure absolute transparency of the entire administrative structure of the enterprise and help it become a modern progressive company" - said Dmytro Barinov, Head of the USPA Supervisory Board, the first deputy head of the Maritime Authority.

The program of this year's Ukrainian Ports Forum 2019 was full of accompanying specialized events that took place in parallel to the Forum:

• EBA Conference on lobbying interests for port industry
• Traditional HR-conference
• A round table on Maritime Security in ports
• A detailed discussion of pilot concession projects in ports
• A series of B2B-meetings

The forum lasted for two days: May 30 and 31.

The Ukrainian Ports Forum 2019 is traditionally organized jointly by Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority and Centre for Transport Strategies.