Suchergebnisse

Integrated maritime policies (IMPs) provide a comprehensive governance framework to support the sustainable use of the seas and oceans while ensuring a horizon of prosperity for the population of the surrounding coastal regions. This paper focuses on how IMP governance can be arranged to support more effective policy integration. We identify and discuss a number of key strategic and institutional issues which are expected to promote more effective policy integration in IMP development and implementation. First, vision statements of IMPs are scrutinised using the triple bottom line framework and by analysing the process of stakeholder involvement and related public disclosure. Second, we introduce the vision-down plans-up approach on stakeholder participation and management in IMP development to overcome the limitations of the widely used bottom-up and top-down approaches in policy formulation. Third, we analyse the tension between policy convergence and regional embeddedness in national IMPs. We argue that policy convergence does not and should not exclude regional embeddedness. Finally, we study IMP governance changes under the dual lens of time frame and institutional plasticity. The findings provide recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders on key strategic and institutional considerations which should enhance effective policy integration during the formulation and implementation of a national IMP.

Ukraine currently is in a very complex economic and political situation, which in itself represents a pivotal point for its further recovery and evolution. Nevertheless, the rise of economic centres in Eastern and Central Europe creates opportunities for Ukraine to develop short sea shipping services (via the Black Sea) and water and land-based hub-feeder networks to and from these areas. This paper provides an academic study of the potential of Ukraine in taking up a role in emerging distribution systems in East and Central Europe facilitating the cargo transportation from regions such as Central Asia, Caucasus and even more distant overseas areas. Based on the concepts of intermediacy and centrality as introduced by Fleming and Hayuth (1994) the role of Ukraine in the global and regional transport networks will be analysed in order to assess to what extent particular regions in Ukraine can serve as important gateways to Europe. An extensive review and synthesis of the published studies during the last 20 years on Ukraine's transit flows and transit function will be presented. The obtained results will be contraposed to the results obtained from about 20 interviews conducted with transport business representatives in Ukraine and abroad. Based on the outcome of bottlenecks and deficiencies in Ukraine's transport system, the optimal road map for Ukraine's integration into the European transport network will be defined.

In the last three decades, transport economists and geographers have published an array of studies on port institutions and governance. Many of these publications emphasize the role of institutions in enabling or inhibiting port efficiencies, port competition (inter and intra) and the development of a port's resources and capabilities. Political instabilities and their consequential economic lags have to some extent misaligned the pace of institutional reforms in Southern African ports compared with ports in the developed world. Some ports in this region (South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Mauritius and Madagascar) have however, over the last 10 to 15 years begun to follow the port reform trend, and as such have undergone various degrees of institutional reform. This work seeks to provide a detailed case study which discloses a holistic overview of recent and on-going institutional reforms of Southern African ports from two perspectives. Firstly, by assessing the extent to which institutional structures have shaped and mediated port development in Southern Africa. Secondly, by conducting a port institutional positioning comparison between a range of North European and Southern African container ports in order to determine how similarly Southern African ports resemble more established first world ports. Southern African ports effectively present a unique case of mixed port institutional development trends compared to those in more developed regions of the world. As such, this case study reinforces the fact that different port institutional structures are locally embedded and do matter in port competition, and that institutional reform has supported port development to varying degrees.

The awarding of port services to private operators has become one of the most important tools for port authorities to retain some control on the organization and structure of the supply side of the terminal market. This paper discusses the awarding of terminals in European ports from an EU legal and policy context. It also seeks to provide in-depth information on current practices and perceptions of port authorities around Europe on tendering and contractual arrangements linked to the awarding of terminals. The relevant issues relate to the terminal awarding processes, the duration of the terminal award contract and the contract stipulations. The paper also seeks to understand whether the practices are influenced by factors such as terminal size, the competitive environment in which the port operates and the geographical location.

Green supply chain management (GSCM) can be defined as the integration of environmental concerns into the inter-organizational practices of supply chain management (SCM). This paper analyzes the role of seaports in the greening of supply chains in two ways. First, the fields of action to pursue GSCM objectives in ports are identified and grouped. The proposed typology includes five groups of actions, i.e., green shipping; green port development and operations; green inland logistics; seaports and the circular economy; and, actions in the field of knowledge development and information sharing. In the empirical part of the paper, this typology is used to analyze green actions and initiatives developed by market players and port authorities in the Rhine–Scheldt Delta, the leading European port region in cargo throughput terms. This structured overview of green actions and initiatives shows that these ports are hotbeds for GSCM initiatives, but progress in some areas remains slows. The second part of the analysis focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of port-related actors towards the greening of port-related supply chains. A large-scale survey conducted in the Belgian and Dutch logistics and port industry reveals that greening has been put massively on the agenda by the firms between 2010 and now. The results give a clear view on the diverse drivers and impediments towards the greening of supply chains. In addition, one can still see a gap between words and actions. The survey further points to the role of governments as catalysts or soft enforcers for change, and calls for continuity and coherence in government policy. This paper is the first study providing a comprehensive analysis on initiatives, approaches, and perspectives of port-related actors in a specific multi-port region.