From November 27th to 29th, the Moroccan port city of Tangier hosted the 5th workshop of the Blue Ports Initiative (BPI), the program established by FAO to support the creation of Blue ports, i.e. fishing ports embracing blue economy principles and activities. The focus of this new workshop was sharing knowledge and experiences on how to strengthen the relationship between cities and ports as a strategic action for local value creation. AIVP and FAO have developed a strong cooperation within the BPI, analyzing and implementing port-city approaches to generate value from fishing port activities. The case of Tangier, both the large-scale port and the urban maritime areas, served as a case study to support the training modules.
The program of the workshop, developed jointly by both organizations, included interventions by AIVP members, such as the Port of Lisbon (Ms. Isabel Moura Ramos), Port of Halifax (Mr. David Thomas), and SAPT (Mr. Driss Benabad) as well as AIVP experts like Mr. Maurice Jansen or Dr. Karel Van den Berghe or a partner organization such as Forum Oceano. AIVP’s treasurer, Mr. Mohamed Ouanaya, had a special intervention in the welcome words and Dr. José Sánchez also explained AIVP’s perspective on port-city relationships and middle-size port cities, as well as moderated a debate with representatives from Argentina, Morocco, and Indonesia. In total, 30 speakers from 17 countries shared their experiences with the 45 participants of the workshop, coming from all over the world. The workshop also included two field visits to the fish port and waterfront of the city of Tangier and the global logistic hub, the Port of Tanger Med.
AIVP has been a partner of this program for the past 2 years with cooperation visible in events like the 17th World Conference also in Tangier, publications, or the previous workshop.
