Barcelona, 17 May 2016 – In recent years, the Mediterranean countries, mainly the countries of the South, have become increasingly aware of the importance of the logistics’ development for their economic development. Multiple initiatives awarded to the private sector and destined to improve their transport networks have considerably strengthened their economies. The Mediterranean region attracts foreign investments of potential investors such as China and is positioned as a logistics and commercial point of reference worldwide.

The development of logistics has been large in the Mediterranean region, but that of the port and maritime sector has not been less. Countries like Morocco, Jordan or Egypt have carried out significant investments in the renovation of their ports addressed to increase their capacities and to connect them with industrial parks for the jobs creation. The Moroccan port complex Tangier-Med or the Suez Canal in Egypt, have turned into the door of entry of products for Europe, Asia and Africa. It is not a chance that China has bet for the Mediterranean, with the concession of the Piraeus Port, the construction of a port in Algeria or the creation of an industrial park around the Suez Canal. About 80 % of the world trade depends on maritime transport, and it is estimated that 20 % of this volume passes through the Suez Canal.

Barcelona, the meeting point for logistics and transport

In this scenario, Barcelona will host once again the International Logistics and Material Handling Exhibition for Trade visitors (SIL 2016), during which the Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCAME), together with the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona and the support of the Chamber of Trade Industry and Navigation of Barcelona, will organize the 14th Mediterranean Logistics and Transport Summit and 9th Mediterranean Ports Summit. Both meetings will bring together managerial international leaders, high executives and thousands of companies of the logistics and the transport sectors of the Mediterranean, Latin America and the Gulf to promote commercial contacts at regional and international level and synergies among the current logistic projects.

The forum will also focus on the important role that logistics has in the provision of goods and services to the massive number of refugees installed in the refugee camps on the verge of Europe.

The gap between the logistic performance of the countries of the North and the South of the Mediterranean is still manifest. What is more, the trend of convergence experienced between 2007 and 2012 has diminished in the last 4 years due to, partly due to the economic global recession and the European crisis that has turned aside from the need to reform the sector of the regional logistics. Indeed, major cooperation in logistics sector between both shores of the Mediterranean would give a positive impulse to the regional economic at times of fragile recovery for the global recession. At the same time, the commercial exchange has to be favoured between the region and the rest of the world, “Building bridges” as this year Summit edition’s motto claims, and where companies of the sector will find more opportunities than risks.