In the middle of the Valparaíso Dialoga activity, the General Manager of the Port Authority of Valparaíso, held a conversation with the organization of Trans-Port 2021 that will be held this year in Santiago de Chile. On the occasion, Gandolfo delved into the advances of the city-port relationship and how the port’s logistics model has proven to be resilient to the effects of the pandemic. In Trans-Port 2021, sustainability experiences in the maritime-port area will be addressed. Tell us how the Port of Valparaíso has focused on this issue in recent times, its scope and benefits for the port business and the port city. Indeed, in Puerto Valparaíso we have managed to advance not only in the three traditional pillars of sustainability, such as social, environmental and economic, but also due to the nature of a State company and public vocation it has been complemented with an institutional pillar that It allows adding greater value to the port, to the port logistics system as a whole and to the port city. Managing and promoting each of these dimensions aims not only to improve and ensure the competitiveness of the Valparaíso port system, but also our survival over time. Valparaíso is a city that has been hit since before the pandemic, and we can comment that together with our concessionaires in a coordinated manner we have undertaken initiatives that have helped the residents of the city, port workers affected by labor losses and recently went to help with respiratory equipment for the local hospital. Environmental sustainability is a key aspect for the future development of the port of Valparaíso, and for which important expectations regarding citizen participation and interaction have been opened. In this vein, since 2021 the Port of Valparaiso has been promoting the Valparaíso Dialoga initiative, a broad and inclusive conversation process that is not only limited to actors in the port system but is open to all citizens. There are different working groups where debates are held to analyze the sustainable expansion of the port within its sheltered waters from different points of view. The initiative is in full swing and we are very happy with the level of convocation it has had, and with the way in which the talks have taken place. Finally, it should be noted that since 2014 we have prepared our sustainability report through the GRI methodology and indicators, which has improved over time, and we now want to strengthen it with the incorporation of the entire port system as a whole, being a great challenge, which is contained in our update of the strategic sustainability plan, which inspires us to continue working on this issue with great force. The effects of the pandemic have been felt in the maritime-port industry, promoting the need to streamline processes, both in customs operations, logistics and traditional functions. In the context of Digitalization as a global phenomenon, tell us how the Port of Valparaíso faced these challenges from the perspective of digital transformation and teleworking tools. As is known, Valparaíso has a rather unique characteristic around its logistics model that defines the terms in which cargo flows are operated in the Valparaíso port system and that considers technological support and collaboration between actors as a fundamental pillar. through the tools and information systems. The port of Valparaíso, the control entities, terminals, and shipping companies, among other actors, collaborate on this platform. We have the first port logistics information system and collaboration between actors in the country, therefore, from that point of view, since long before the pandemic, we have been working and have been working and enhancing all our technological support and collaboration tools, it is as well as we must indicate that the pandemic situation took us, I would say, on the right foot. However, it has been a very significant demonstration of how these complex situations can accelerate processes during the pandemic period, where we have managed to enhance the facilitation process with the different control entities and for various types of cargo, an issue that perhaps we could not achieve in several years before. Clearly, the pandemic has been an accelerator of multiple digitization processes, starting with the need to enable and make teleworking or remote work possible for an important set of actors in the port. We take this phenomenon as positive learning in the face of the complex situation we are experiencing, reinforcing, and increasing the digital transformation processes which are here to stay. Valparaíso has a culture that facilitates the adoption and incorporation of new technology, which has been always accompanied by the instances of conversation and collaboration through the Valparaíso Logistics Forum (FOLOVAP) that allow these processes to flow naturally. Our next technological leap is underway with the current public bidding process of what we have called SILOGPORT 2021, which is our third generation of Port Community System- PCS, which together with the collaboration of the logistics community will incorporate many additional improvements for integration with various actors and also for expanding cargo visibility towards what we have called the extended logistics chain from origin to destination, which will strengthen our competitive position. These types of solutions will be the subject of the Trans-Port 2021 event and therefore we believe that collecting the greatest amount of experiences from other ports in these innovations will be very beneficial as part of the knowledge exchanges that take place in this type of fairs. What expectations does the Valparaíso port have in TRANS-PORT 2021 and how the participants of the maritime-port industry should take advantage of this event, in a context of economic recovery of both the national economy and trade. Ports, being an essential facility and with a participation of over 90% of our foreign trade that is transported essentially by sea, becomes a privileged actor to monitor the economic activity of our country. In a context of operational continuity during the pandemic and current economic recovery, ports and logistics systems must continue to support the functioning of the economy, and therefore we believe that instances such as Transport 2021 will allow gathering best practices to know how countries have experienced these processes in advance adjustment that comes to us later and to contribute to collect formulas, experiences and contributions to carry precisely the process of recovery of our country that is so necessary. It is also important to point out that ports are inserted into territories and that in our case it is the city of Valparaíso and the metropolitan area of Valparaíso, so that port, logistics and transport activity are essential to contribute to the process of recovery of the territory by which we serve and on which we work, therefore, we believe that ports and port systems will be even more key in economic recovery Finally, make an invitation to executives, authorities, officials and professionals related to the maritime-port industry to participate in TRANS-PORT 2021 From port of Valparaiso we want to invite all national and international actors of the port systems, logistics services and transport to participate in Transport 2021, an instance that has been strengthening and that during this 2021 version promises exhibitions and experiences together with the best networks of institutional and business collaboration. We cordially invite you to participate in this beneficial event for all.
