To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, Puertos del Estado held an event at Callao City Lights in Madrid, which was attended by more than 300 guests.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 63 – December 2022
The celebration, presided over by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, the President of State Ports, Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena and the Secretary of State Isabel Pardo de Vera, to which former presidents of the institution, presidents and directors of the port authorities, as well as representatives of the national port community were invited, was enlivened with classical and contemporary pieces by musicians from the Albéniz Foundation.
In the words of the president of State Ports: “Today we celebrate the enormous transformation of Spanish ports in these 30 years and we look to the future, with innovation, sustainability and people as the pillars that will guide our course.”.
The minister used her speech to highlight the importance of the coordinating role of State Ports and the collaboration and institutional loyalty of the 28 port authorities, making ports “driving centers of activity that provide added value to goods and are fully integrated into logistics and intermodal chains.” For this reason, she positively assessed the activity figures for 2022, which will end with traffic levels comparable to those of 2019, at 564 million tons. “A growth trajectory of over 4% is projected for the coming years,” Raquel Sánchez affirmed.
Despite the encouraging figures, the minister emphasized that we live in a highly uncertain and unstable international context, and that the 2030 Strategic Framework is the path chosen by ports to face these challenges and compete as effectively as possible within international transport and logistics networks. This plan will enable ports of general interest to address the climate emergency, the digital transformation, and the emergence of Industry 4.0, while simultaneously developing infrastructure and services and consolidating ports as true logistics hubs.
The minister also highlighted the role that ports play in passenger transport, whose figures have continued to grow, and the role of cruise passengers, whose unstoppable growth has already become an indispensable component of our tourism sector.
The minister also expressed her gratitude to the men and women who, throughout the entity's 30-year history, have dedicated their best efforts to the port community. "Without their effort and dedication, it would not be possible to celebrate what is undoubtedly this success story today," she said. She also highlighted the role ports play in passenger transport, whose numbers have continued to grow, with journeys occurring every day of the year. These journeys encompass inter-island transfers and connections to the mainland in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla, in addition to cruise passengers. The unstoppable growth of cruise ship passengers has made them an indispensable component of the tourism sector, thanks to investments and efforts to improve the terminals that accommodate them.
