Deputy-Minister Kamen Kichev opened national meeting on Danube ports development
08.11.2012
“Bulgaria will rely on European funding for development of Bulgarian Danube ports” said the Deputy-Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Kamen Kichev during a national meeting on port development along the Danube river, part of DaHar project. The forum was organized by the Executive Agency “Maritime Administration” and it was attended by representatives of the government, professional and transport associations, business representative and others.
"We created a joint Bulgarian-Romanian committee to work for a sustainable development of the transport between the two countries along the Danube and we hope that we can use funds from Connecting Europe Facility to improve navigation on the Danube river", said the Deputy-Minister. "The Danube is very important and this type of transport is a priority," he added. In his words now we use less than 10% of the capacity of the river and the state together with the industry should identify measures to support the development of water transport.
“We have started concession procedures for the bigger Danube ports and we hope soon we will have serious investors” said the Deputy-Minister. According to him this is the best way for managing these ports. “I hope that will lead to improvement of port infrastructure and intermodal transport ", he added.
“The economic and logistical development of small and medium sized Danube cities are the main objectives of DaHar project” said the Executive director of EA "Maritime administration" Sergey Kirilov Tzarnakliyski.
The DaHar – Danube Inland Harbour Development project is co-funded by the Operational Programme Cross border Cooperation for Southeastern Europe 2007 – 2013. The main activities include a careful exploration of the potential of Danube ports (specialization and construction of container and ro-ro port terminals), developing a common transport strategy for the region and improving the economic indicators of the cities along the Danube.
The DaHar project has 23 partners from 6 countries, including port operators, municipalities, foundations, research institutes and others. It combines the efforts of different institutions, organizations and companies from the Middle and Lower Danube region which aim to upgrade transport relations and to increase the efficiency of transport sector along the Danube.
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