InfoRoom

    You are here:  
  1. Home
  2. InfoRoom

6 February 2019, Enns - Danube Ports Network announces the formation of its First Advisory Group and the election of its Chair, Captain Béla Szalma, President of the Hungarian Federation of the Danube Ports (HFIP), effective today.

Danube Ports Network (DPN) announced today that it has formed an Advisory Group (AdG) to assist in further building and consolidating the capacity and identity of the Network, implementing the DPN’s current plans, as well as identifying means to capitalize on future growth opportunities. In addition, the AdG shall contribute to achieving a more dynamic, sustainable, state-of-the art network of ports in the Danube Region with a stronger and more coordinated voice at regional and EU level.

With the election of Captain Béla Szalma as Chairman, the DPN’s Advisory Group consists of 6 members, including Werner Auer, Managing Director Ennshafen, Anguel Zabourtov, Director General of the Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company (BPI Co.), Gerhard Gussmagg, Managing Director Rhenus Logistics, Rhenus Donauhafen Krems, and Thomas Moser, General Director Danube Logistics SRL general investor and operator of Giurgiulesti International Free Port (GIFP). The National Company Maritime Ports Administration Constanta S.A. shall also be represented in the DPN Advisory Group.

The Advisory Group members bring a rich and useful skill set and professional experience to the DPN in its early stage of organisational development in the following areas: international business operations and shipping, port business development, strategy, financing and market analysis, and public ports governance and administration (see the attached professional biographies of the DPN AdG Members).

The Advisory Group is the decision-making body of the DPN. It is responsible for the strategic management of the network and offers overall direction and guidance. It takes decisions on the scope of work of the network (annual work program) based on proposals of the Technical Secretariat. Its structure is informal. There are no formal legal responsibilities or fiduciary duties to the DPN partners. The DPN Partner Forum is chaired by the elected chairman of the Advisory Group.

The Capitalisation Strategy designed by the Danube Transnational Programme is aimed to promote synergies between projects on similar topics (gathered under a Thematic Poles) and increase the visibility and impact of their results. Each Thematic Pole identifies the synergies among the projects within the same pole, reinforces the existing networks of relevant stakeholders and creates new ones and fills in the knowledge gaps by linking actors with complementary thematic specialization, experiences, methodological approaches or territorial relevance.

Halfway through the project, the DAPhNE consortium uniting 23 partners from 9 Danube riparian countries is delivering notable progress in all project activities, especially related to port legislation & funding, port administration & management, port development but also in relation to port strategy & port network formation.

The DAPhNE project which facilitates the further development of Danube ports as environmentally-friendly, easily accessible, multimodal hubs for regional transport and logistics has been consolidating the Danube Ports Network in the past ten months. Officially started on 1 January 2017, the DAPhNE consortium consisting of public authorities, port administrations, universities, consulting companies and NGOs from 9 Danube States is making important steps towards the achievement of the project goals: know-how exchange among the ports of the region, inter-sectoral and transnational cooperation and innovative approaches to port administration and port management.

On 1 January 2017, twenty-three partners from the Danube region officially started the project DAPhNE (Danube Ports Network). Co-funded by the Danube Transnational Programme as one of the 54 approved projects out of 547 initially submitted applications, the project focuses on improving the performance of Danube Ports with the aim to turn them into buzzing economic centres. In a nutshell, DAPhNE touches on topics such as port legislation & funding, port administration & management, port development and port strategy & port network formation.

Page 4 of 4

© 2024 Danube Ports Network. All Rights Reserved.