An essential role in innovation, training, and the sustainability of the port sector, contributing its experience and resilience in the face of the uncertain context that maritime transport is experiencing. With this message, the president of the Association of Ship Consignees of Barcelona, Salvador Richart, addressed the attendees of the eleventh edition of Consignee Day. In an event that hosted about 200 people at the Casa Fuster hotel, a modernist building located on Passeig de Gracia, in the center of Barcelona, the event served to once again highlight the cohesion and unity of the maritime, port, and logistics sector in a scenario marked by constant disruptions in the maritime business. Consignee Day was attended by representatives of the port community, such as freight forwarders, stevedores, maritime and logistics companies, and the administration, represented by the commercial and marketing deputy director of the port of Barcelona, Carla Salvadó, and the Secretary of Mobility of the Government of Catalonia, Manel Nadal.
In his speech, Salvador Richart urged to enhance training to guarantee the generational turnover among professionals in the consignee sector in order to “improve traffic, modernize the port, and accelerate the competitiveness of maritime companies.” To this end, he called for greater visibility of the role of consignees, whom he referred to as “indispensable actors,” who have the need to transmit their knowledge to secure the future of the port community.
This invisibility was highlighted by the commercial and marketing deputy director of the port of Barcelona, Carla Salvadó, who referred to the “silent figure” of the consignees in the day-to-day port activities. In this sense, Salvadó praised the ability of the actors in the port community to reinvent themselves and referred to the port’s investment effort “to give the port and maritime sector what it needs.” Beyond works and infrastructure, Salvadó took note of the consignees’ demands and recalled the port authority’s willingness to count on them to advance competitiveness, always keeping a sustainable path at the center.
For his part, the Secretary of Mobility of the Government of Catalonia, Manel Nadal, referred to the improvements that the administration is carrying out to implement the single window, so as to streamline the bureaucratic procedures for businesses in the port and maritime sector. Nadal valued the trajectory of the port community in order to offer a quality product, so that “we find a port of Barcelona that looks to its customers and the hinterland that supports it.” As future challenges that are under development, Nadal mentioned the railway and road access to the port of Barcelona and the actions to make the infrastructure’s activity compatible with the airport.
Business Recognition
As usual, Consignee Day concluded with the presentation of recognitions to various companies in the sector. The first one went to Barcelona Towage, a company in the tugboat sector. Its general director, Jorge Hernández, could not attend in person to collect the award. Another awardee was the director in Spain of the women’s association Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (Wista), Rosana Velasco. The last of the recognitions went to Alfredo Serrano, director in Spain of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the association that brings together the industries in the cruise sector.
