Expertise France is hosting the event “Connecting Shores: Towards More Sustainable Corridors, Ports and Maritime Routes” in Marseille, France, on May 15, 2024.
Maritime transport represents the cornerstone of international trade with more than 80% of volumes traded globally transported by ship. At the level of the European Union, 37% of traded volumes transit through sea ports. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the ongoing armed conflicts in Ukraine and in the Red Sea highlight the political and economic impacts of major disruptions in maritime freight. Against this backdrop, international organizations, governments and other key economic players, notably the private sector, join efforts to develop more efficient, resilient and secure transport corridors and maritime routes. Ports in particular, as inter faces between land and sea, have a crucial role to play to support international logistics chains and must therefore demonstrate agility.
The Global Gateway strategy outlines the ambition of the European Union and its Member States to promote both the economic integration and the development of partner countries, notably through investments in strategic, sustainable and secure transport corridors. Meant to facilitate connectivity, mobility and global trade, these strategic corridors require reliable networks and services both on and offshore.
The event “Connecting Shores: Towards More Sustainable Corridors, Ports and Maritime Routes” will explore avenues to meet these challenges and establish strategic corridors, which benefit both the EU and its international partners. A strong focus will be placed on the role of ports as central nodes, between inland networks and maritime routes.
National and multilateral development banks, alongside private investors, stand ready to fund relevant investments. Cooperation agencies play a unique role in facilitating and assembling skills from the public and private sectors. Nevertheless, beyond the main orientations expressed in the Global Gateway, development actors still need support to better understand priorities and conditions for operationalization in order to precisely identify the needs and to build partnerships accordingly.
Discussions will on the one hand highlight the policy-makers’ implementation priorities, but also current projects, lessons learned and good practices. On the other hand, new types of partnerships, for instance in terms projects’ financing, execution and governance will also be presented. The event will also be the occasion to listen to the perspectives of the corridors’ users, such as professionals from the logistics and shipping sector.
The event will bring together 200 to 300 guests representing the European Commission and the Member States, European development stakeholders (development banks, Practitioners’ Network member agencies), their international partners (international and regional organizations, partner state representatives), as well as representatives of the private sector and civil society. It will include a limited number of thematic sessions, organized in the form of discussion panels between representatives of various sectors (e.g. policy-maker, financial institution, cooperation agency, experts from the public or the private sectors, civil society).
If you are interest to attend the event, you can register here
Expertise France is the French public agency for the design and implementation of international technical cooperation projects and member of the Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD). The event takes place on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the Practitioners’ Network, which encompasses all European development cooperation agencies.