The Development of Major Seaports in the Context of National Maritime Policy. The Case Study of Poland

Abstract

State authorities may influence the development of seaports by employing the tools of national maritime policy. On the one hand, seaports contribute to the socioeconomic development of coastal regions; on the other, they have a significant impact on foreign trade turnover. The aim of this study is to identify the major factors that have influenced the development of Poland’s seaports in the context of the country’s maritime policy. The paper examines and explains the development and transitions of major Polish seaports such as Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin, and Swinoujcie. In order to identify the state of the port economy the authors used public statistics and data analysis. Furthermore, they created a model of comanagement of major seaports and presented a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the development of major seaports from 2005 to 2019. It was discovered that port turnover increased, but in various ways in each of the analysed ports. The government of Poland, acting in a dual role as the coordinator of national maritime policy and the majority owner of seaports, was the most powerful decision-maker in the port economy. However initiatives to implement sustainable principles in seaports have gradually emerged through bottom-up activities of port authorities supported by local and regional authorities.

Indicators of port sustainability: The example of Baltic Sea container ports

“…Among them, the ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia achieve by far the worst results, as they should implement as many as seven environmental initiatives of the port's SD, including those that require significant infrastructure investments. Our results contradict Bocheński et al (2021), who stated that those ports created “opportunities for the use of alternative fuels by ships, electricity supply from shore to vessels at berth, and reduction of emissions from storage yards” (sic). As for the other ports from this group, only the Port of Klaipeda does not use technology that requires less energy, while all still struggle to comply with EU legislation regarding emissions reduction at berths (e.g., the introduction of LNG bunkering, OPS, or RES).…”

The Role of Socioeconomic Activities towards Improved Livelihoods of Surrounding Households: A Case of Mkokotoni Seaport in Zanzibar

“…In the Global context, regardless of seaports being the main hub for economic development of some countries especially non landlocked countries, effective seaports transportation activities are hampered by external environments. These includes political changes, great geographical discoveries, wars and colonial expansion of European countries, economic development, social crisis and industrial revolution (Montwill, 2014;Bocheński et al, 2021). Other authors, including Notteboom et al (2022) and Olukoju (2020) consider seaport as an important economic space in which a wide range of services play roles to a wide range of customers such as shippers, forwarders, transport companies and logistics.…”

Convergence of Energy Intensity of the Export of Goods by Rail Transport: Linkages with the Spatial Integration and Economic Condition of Countries

“…Improving access to seaports and border crossings (in the East) as generators of the main traffic of international transport [64,157]. 6.…”