The first workshop of the Valenciaport Chair of Port Economics was held on October 25. The event was attended by several international experts in the maritime sector.
The Chair of Port Economics organized last October 25, in the Clock Building of the Port of Valencia, the workshop 'Port strategy and performance in the new global scenario'. The first part of the workshop was attended by the president of the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), Aurelio Martinez; the vice-rector of Innovation and Transfer of the University of Valencia, Rosa Maria Donat; and the director of the Valenciaport Chair of Port Economics of the University of Valencia, Vicente Pallardó.
In the second part, the international speakers shared their analysis on 'the current maritime-port environment and the importance of sectorial indicators to understand the relevance of ports for economic development'. Michael Dooms (Vrije Universiteit Brussel-Solvay Business School), Theo Notteboom (University Antwerp-Maritime Academy), Thanos Pallis (University of Piraeus), Luis Antonia Rodríguez (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development -UNCTAD-), and Vicente Pallardó participated in this round table, which was moderated by Juan Manuel Díez, head of Strategic Planning of the APV.
Trading with friends' index
Also presented was the 'Trading with friends' indicator, an index to measure the vulnerability of trade with non-democratic countries, which provides an assessment of the degree of dependence of the Spanish economy on countries that do not have full democracies.
The war in Ukraine has generated some uncertainty to depend commercially on non-democratic regimes, and even from some sectors of international trade is being encouraged to "decoupling", which is to break trade relations with countries that are not fully democratic. This trend, according to Pallardó, "has very significant costs, for the maritime sector and for ports it would be devastating to close international relations with certain countries", warned the director of the Chair.
Given this situation, the 'Trading with friends' index is very appropriate for measuring trade with non-democratic countries. A first introduction of this indicator shows that 75% of Spanish exports and 60% of Spanish imports are made with countries with full democracies, so the degree of dependence on non-democratic countries is not important, although "in recent years this has increased, especially in imports". In the case of Valenciaport, Professor Pallardó pointed out that "in the last decade, between 2009 and 2019, the Port of Valencia has increased its traffic with democratic countries by 14%".
The Valenciaport Chair of Port Economics
This day has served to publicly present the Valenciaport Chair of Port Economics, the result of the collaboration between the Port Authority of Valencia and the University of Valencia. The aim of this union is to develop research activities related to the analysis and periodic monitoring of the international economic situation, trade and its maritime-port implications, as well as to promote the dissemination and encourage collaboration and exchange of knowledge between universities and professionals by providing meeting spaces.
- More information on the Valenciaport Chair of Port Economics of the UV website.
- More information on the Port Authority of Valencia (APV) website.
- More information on the WorkShop 2022 website - YouTube
