Volodymyr Shemayev, Head of Strategic Planning and Development Department of Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), comments on the body’s Strategic Development Plan for 2021-2025 adopted by Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (MIU) in August 2020.
This strategy envisages corporatisation, Port-Landlord pattern, and improvement of interaction with the port community
It was back in 2019 that USPA commenced the course of public consultations with stakeholders regarding its strategy plan till 2025. The process was vividly supported by the authority’s Supervisory Board. And recently the Plan was approved by MIU. The document’s main idea is conversion of USPA into an up-to-date competitive company developing ports.
Transforming to a modern stock corporation
It is primarily about preparation of the transfer to a corporate form of management. The enterprise’s corporatisation should advance its mobility in control of the assets (including berths), reorganisation (consolidation) of structural divisions (including port branches), as well as enable to bring the personnel quantity to international standards level. Besides it, the corporate form of management allows establishing daughter companies or those of joint tenancy (inter alii, with local municipalities, as many European ports do). It is notable that over 50% of port authorities in Europe are joint stock societies. To realise this item of our strategy is to gain consolidated support by Cabinet of Ministers and Verkhovna Rada (parliament) for providing the relevant changes and passing a special law of USPA corporatisation.
Approaching to Port-Landlord pattern
The very creation of USPA in 2013 by way of separating strategic objects of the ports infrastructure into an independent company initiated the port industry management system’s transfer to the widely adopted abroad Port-Landlord pattern. Its essence is as simple as this: the state through its ports authority develops strategic infrastructure and controls abidance by the equal rules of the ‘game’ while its players render services of towage, stevedoring etc. on the competition base. A port develops in accordance with its development plan prepared by the port’s authority, taking into account prospective areas.
Attraction of experienced investors to development of state-owned assets is accompanied by first pilot concession agreements in Olvia and Kherson ports. Further on, by European example it is necessary to elaborate an instrument of obtaining parts of concession fees by the public company in order to meet its liabilities under the concession agreement, inasmuch as today all 100% of fees are to go to the state budget, as opposed to common world practices.
There is also in prospect a procedure of private investments in strategic port objects compensation to be issued. With this regard there is a task set up to finalise identification of sea ports territories’ boundaries and to improve efficiency of employing public berths by companies entitled to.
Improvement of port community cooperation
The port sector of Ukraine embraces a wide circle of stakeholders, namely local municipalities and authorities, port cities inhabitants, port businesses etc. According to the strategy, USPA should seek for stirring up the dialogue with them. Combination of marketing efforts with port operators and other port business subjects at outer markets is going to aim at attraction of transit cargo flows and Ukrainian ports’ entry in international delivery chains.
The situation with COVID-19 spreading has come a ‘black swan’ for all the business in total. That’s why it is vital to consider possible changes in external environment and market trends. In this respect jointly with Roland Berger there were designed three scenarios of economic and production rates development.
In order to measure efficiency of the strategy’s implementation there are key showings identified. Among them for the basic scenario, say till 2025, it is anticipated the labour productivity growth (over 1.1M UAH per employee), berths use productivity (at least 3,000 t per waterfront metre), and customers’ satisfaction – above 50%.
https:/ports.ua/miu-utverdilo-vektory-razvitiya-ampu/
http://www.uspa.gov.ua/en/press-center/news/uspa-news/17740-strategic-development-plan-of-ukrainian-sea-ports-authority-until-2025-has-been-adopted