Top priority given to port reforms

Recently appointed merchant marine minister says changes are important to growth, economy

Recently appointed Merchant Marine Minister Anastassis Papaligouras said yesterday reforms to the country’s ports will top his agenda in a bid to make them more competitive internationally.

“I want to stress that the first priority is to continue and complete the large port reforms,” he said after meeting with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday.

“This is a structural reform that is important for growth and for the economy.”

State-controlled Piraeus Port Authority, the country’s biggest, is presently in talks with Cosco Pacific, Asia’s third-largest container terminal operator, over the details of the contract to operate container terminals.

The contract is being opposed by workers at the port who have boycotted overtime and weekend work, driving the company into a first-half loss.

A two-month strike at the port in late 2006 delayed the government’s plans to find private investors to expand the cargo terminals in Piraeus and Thessaloniki and have both ports tap burgeoning trade growth in the Mediterranean.

The government owns 75 percent of each of those companies.

Papaligouras, a former justice minister, took over from Giorgos Voulgarakis who quit his post last week following criticism over his real estate business.

Talks between Karamanlis and Papaligouras also focused on problems in the ferry industry, according to sources.

Ferry operators have refused to take part in a tender for state-funded ferry routes to isolated and unprofitable destinations, arguing that the procedure “is full of problems.”

Ferry operators have said they will wait for a second tender to be announced by the Merchant Marine Ministry this week and have threatened to take legal action against the government if there are no improvements in the conditions accompanying the tender.