Government of the Azores wants to improve the capabilities of outermost ports

The Vice-President of the Government of the Azores, Artur Lima, defended the need to “enable the ports” of the outermost regions (ORs) in their operational security, given their “central role” in the economy of the islands.

“Ports in the ORs play a central role in all their economic activity, whether through cargo transport or the mobility of people,” said Artur Lima at the political bureau of the Commission for Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) of the European Union (EU), which took place in recent days in The Hague, in the Netherlands.

The political leader, quoted in a press release released this Monday, considered it “fundamental to enable ports in their operational safety, promote their resilience to climate change and maintain capacity levels adjusted to current and future demands”.

For Artur Lima, “ investing in the ORs is safeguarding the social and economic cohesion of the European Union”.

Port modernization “is essential to guarantee competitiveness and ensure territorial cohesion, reducing the geographic isolation of these regions”, according to the vice-president of the Azorean executive.

Artur Lima reiterated the need to establish a POSEI Transport to “respond to the real challenges of the ORs in this sector”.

The Vice-President of the Regional Government of the Azores identified the potential of regional and small ports to play “an important role in the implementation of the EU port strategy”, allowing “to relieve central ports and improve the resilience of logistics chains”.

Lima said regional ports “can host maritime surveillance and operational coordination centers , contributing to the security of trade routes and the supply of critical products and technologies.”

The CPMR brings together more than 150 regions from 24 countries, representing around 200 million people.