Stroytransgaz participated in VIII Forum “Port Infrastructure: Construction, Upgrade, Operation”

First day of the Forum

On 21-22 March 2023, the VIII Annual Forum “Port Infrastructure: Construction, Upgrade, Operation” was held at the RF Government Analytical Centre in Moscow, where experts discussed the projects on developing port infrastructure in the Arctic and yacht marinas in the Azov-Black Sea coastline, as well as investment and legal aspects of construction. Sergey Garanov, Director for Water Facilities Construction at Stroytransgaz, took part in the Forum as a delegate.

Over almost a decade, the Forum has proved itself to be an established platform for discussing strategic plans for development of the port industry. The event was attended by nearly 200 delegates: port business representatives, regulatory authorities, experts and analysts, investment and financial institutions, port construction contractors, service providers, technology and equipment suppliers for port construction and operation, and logistics companies.

Organiser of the Forum was the information and analytical magazine " Sea Ports" supported by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport, the Association of Sea Commercial Ports (ASOP) and the Maritime Arbitration Commission under the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

The Forum opened with the Plenary Session “Development of Russian Seaports and Current Issues of State Regulation of the Port Industry”. “The Plenary Session raised particular attention to port infrastructure development projects in the Arctic and yacht marinas on the Azov-Black Sea coastline, as well as investment and legal aspects of construction. Stroytransgaz implements a number of significant projects in the field of hydrotechnical construction: Bagaevsky Hydroelectric Complex, consolidation of the shoreline along the Sea of Okhotsk in Magadan, and the coastal and marine infrastructure in Gelendzhik,” said Sergei Garanov.

In the context of the new economic reality, the port business, like the entire Russian economy, is facing a number of unprecedented challenges. As early as 2021, a legal framework for regulating investor intentions in infrastructure development - the investment declaration, which is mandatory under the Seaports Act - was formed at the legislative level. In parallel, the mechanism for concession agreements continues to evolve. For the industry, last year was primarily concerned not with developing infrastructure, but with setting up new supply chains. Development of port infrastructure slowed down, but did not stop.  “Now the situation has stabilised: new independent domestic services are starting to develop, e.g. from Baltic ports to China and India directly. In general, we plan to implement around 30 events to improve seaports by 2030, which could increase their capacity by more than 277 million tonnes,” said Roman Kokunin, Deputy Head of Rosmorrechflot's Seaports and Infrastructure Development Department.

The forum participants were also interested in the logistics session “Port-Oriented Logistics. Development of Maritime Component in Multimodal Services”. “Limitations of railway infrastructure in the Eastern direction will not meet all transportation needs, so the ports of the North-Western and Arctic basins will be in demand under certain conditions for transportation of certain commodity groups,” said Tatiana Gorova, First Vice President of the Center for Strategic Research Foundation, Chairman of the Public Council at the Ministry of Transport of Russia.  She also shared her estimates on the capacity of global markets and Russia's ability to increase the share of domestic products supplied to foreign markets in the current environment.

Scientific and practical session "Engineering and Technological Innovations for Ports" intended for designers, port engineers and contractors took place on the second day of the Forum.
Summarizing the outcomes of the Forum Sergey Garanov highlighted impprtance of this Forum as a place to discuss actual issues of port development including trends in management of port activities and infrastructure projects, as well as the latest technologies in construction, upgrade and safety operation of the port infrastructure.

You can read more about the Forum on the website of the information and analytical magazine “Sea Ports” at http://www.morvesti.ru/news/1678/101665/