The priority objective of the visit has been to publicize the Logistics Platform as a global offer of the productive spaces and infrastructures of the province to attract international traffic.
The Southern European Logistics Platform, promoted by the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz and the City Councils of Cádiz, Jerez and Algeciras, is advancing in its consolidation at an international level. This is clear from the presentation that took place this morning by the delegate of the Free Zone, Jorge Ramos; the deputy mayor of Development of Cádiz, Bruno García; and the first deputy mayor and the delegate of Economic Impulse of Jerez, Antonio Saldaña and Francisco Cáliz, who have reported in detail about their joint presence at the I World Forum on Logistics Cities, which took place from May 28 to 31 in the city of Laredo (Texas).
The delegate of the Free Trade Zone has explained that the priority objective of participation in said forum has been to make known in a direct and explicit way the potential of the Southern European Logistics Platform, in order to attract commercial traffic to the province of Cádiz that generates employment and wealth and take advantage of the opportunity in the global framework of transport logistics and foreign trade. In this sense, Ramos has influenced the joint presence of the province, also highlighting the figure of the Provincial Council and the City Council of Algeciras, having achieved for the first time in Spain the union of city councils and institutions to promote an initiative until now always promoted by state governments. Likewise, he has highlighted the importance of the Forum at a global level, since more than 300 representatives of the main international platforms and companies have participated, with 15 countries represented, including the US, Japan, England, Peru, China, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Singapore, among others.
Accompanying your presentation with a digital slide presentation summarizing the project –presentation that was presented during the Forum -, Ramos has been breaking down the strengths that make up the Southern European Logistics Platform, focusing on the location and privileged situation as a gateway to Western markets and how the province is projected as a logistics base for American and Asian products to Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa.
The delegate of the Free Zone has detailed that the project is prepared to attract part of the commercial flows from America and Asia, which enter the European Union in more than 80% through the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg, a situation that occurs due to the lack of knowledge of the existence of the Southern European Logistics Platform, its infrastructure and its competitive advantages to operate by reducing costs and times for logistics operators.
Finally, the head of the Fiscal Institution has indicated that another of the purposes of participation in the Forum has been, not only to position the province as a transit point for goods internationally, but also to promote it as a place of production to attract activities to the territory that multiply its added value. At this point, the existence of the Cádiz Free Zone is projected as fundamental due to its customs and fiscal advantages.
For all these reasons, Ramos has described the visit as “very satisfactory”, since he has made the platform known first-hand to companies and countries that could be interested in advancing specific contacts and studies that would position the province of Cádiz as a first-level logistics area. Furthermore, the experience has also been important because it has been possible to learn in situ how the logistics market moves in the world and in America as a meeting bridge between the flows of the Pacific and Asia with the Atlantic and vice versa.
Along these lines, both Bruno García and Antonio Saldaña have pointed out that the presence of the cities of Cádiz and Jerez has also been decisive, since reverse and bilateral commercial actions have been carried out with the majority of the operators and administrations present at the Forum. In fact, upcoming visits to the province have been planned, both business and institutional, to deepen their knowledge of the infrastructure and the opportunities for implementing their activities through the platform.
During the exhibition, those held with Bahía Blanca of Argentina, Monterrey and Tamaulipa (Mexico) and notably with the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Peru, Carlos Posada, who will visit Cádiz in the coming weeks, stood out. Along these lines, Bruno García also reported the signing of an agreement between the City of Laredo-Cádiz City Council-Jerez City Council for mutual promotion between cities and the use of strategic contacts with the main logistics operators located in said points.
The three cities agreed to extend the agreement to the city of Algeciras, which with the port of the Bay of Algeciras is also fundamental in the Southern European Logistics Platform.