We would be honoured if you would participate in the Workshop (Session “Ambitions andtransferability opportunities for the Balkans & Black Sea”) that the CPMR Balkan & Black Sea and Atlantic Arc Commissions are organising in Poti, kindly hosted by Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region – CPMR BBSC Member and the Municipality of Poti City, on 22 September2022, in the framework of the Atlantic Smart Ports Blue Acceleration Network (AspBAN Project). The workshop will be held in hybrid format.
The AspBAN project has been awarded funding by the European Union (under grant agreement N°: EMFF-APC-2020-AspBAN-101033749) to develop a dynamic acceleration services platform for Atlantic ports to work as blue economy hubs, thus diversifying their business models and revenue sources.
The hybrid workshop in Poti aims to explore ways for future cooperation between AspBAN partners and stakeholders from the wider Black Sea region, as well as possible replication of the AspBAN Project’s best practices in the area.
A CPMR Intercommission Seminar on “Ports as hubs of the blue economy”, co-organised with the ASPBAN project will be held in the framework of the 50th General Assembly of the CPMR, on 26 October, in Crete Region (Greece). The feedback from Poti will be shared with participants and partners from all sea basins of Europe, across the CPMR membership, to explore different cooperation opportunities.
Please find attached the draft Agenda for this event. The draft Agenda is regularly updated and available on our website.
Participants that are planning to attend in person, are kindly requested to wait for our confirmation BEFORE proceeding with their travel arrangements.
To ensure the smooth organisation and running of this event, please be so kind as to have registered by Friday 9 September.
Please be informed that for in-person participants there will be the possibility of a study visit to the Poti Sea Port. The Poti Sea Port, managed by APM Terminals (Maersk group), is the largest port in Georgia, handling container, liquids, general cargo, Ro Ro and freight/passenger ferries. The port serves as a European gateway for international trade in Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia,and Azerbaijan) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan). It offers direct feeder and ferry traffic within the Black Sea ports and is connected to the national railway network, with connection to all key cities in Georgia and its hinterland. APM Terminals Poti is actively working on developing middle corridor through which cargo is being transported from China to Europe via Poti Port. In addition, company has a plan to build first deep water port in Poti. According to this, please consider to add one speaker from the Commercial team of the company, who could brief the local situation, increased cargo flow, situation in international markets and expansion possibilities. To this end, in-person participants will be kindly asked to send their copies of passport or ID card 10 days prior to the workshop, due to security procedures.
An additional visit to the Poti Maritime Academy’s simulation training auditoria can be also organised.
Please REGISTER HERE !