Maritime economists recently pay attention to Africa region issues

2019 September 11-14 in Kenya, Mombasa, the 26th international scientific conference “Sustainable Sea, Ports and Logistics Industry in Agglomerated Economy: Targeted to Blue Growth”, organized by the International Maritime Economists Association, was attended by dr. Rasa Viederytė.

This conference was dedicated to the global challenges of sustainable blue and green growth in the maritime industry. The main scientific discussions were on the following topics: a) Development of ports, shipping and logistics markets, including participants in the freight and cruise markets; b) Clarification of the concepts of blue economy and Blue Growth: definitions, objectives and impact; c) Differences between the maritime economy and the Blue economy: do they exist at all; (d) transfer of know-how and learning from developed countries to developing countries and vice versa; (e) Developing marine knowledge and learning in developing economies, including the challenges of port automation and technological progress and their impact on job creation; (f) An overview of the current situation, impacts and policy measures for the shipping, port and logistics industries; (g) Social purpose of ports and port-city relations in developing economies; h) Challenges to maritime and port security in shipping and ports, etc.

Over 250 economists from the “Port Economy”, “Green Ports”, “Blue Economy”, “Technology and Innovation”, “Shipping Economy and Policy”, “Ports Cooperation”, “Green Shipping” and “Port Development” the world. Doc. dr. R. Viederytė delivered a report on “Political and technological solutions for the sustainable development of the maritime industry: in the Baltic Sea Region”.

An international scientific conference in Africa, organized by the International Association of Marine Economists, was held for the first time. This extraordinary event attracted a lot of attention from the national media; The plenary session of the scientific conference was broadcast directly by Kenya’s national television. During the conference, the safety of all participants was extra care. The conference program also included visiting Mombasa as one of the largest ports in East Africa – during this visit the volumes of cargo handling were presented, the infrastructure was shown, and the strategic development directions of the port were introduced.

During the conference a thematic mini-hatchet was organized with the aim of improving the operating principles of the Mombasa port information system and providing the best economic solutions for optimizing the management of the information system, assessing potential risks, identifying environmental impacts.

Conference scientific papers will be published in the following scientific journals: Maritime Policy and Management, Maritime Business Review, Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics. During the conference the best authors were awarded in the following categories: the best publication in the category of young researchers, the best publication on the maritime theme of the agglomerated economy, the best publication for winning the Kyoto Prize.

During the Thematic High-Level Conference on Maritime Economists, the participant not only read the scientific report but also exchanged good practice, shared his insights, listened to scientific reports read by other maritime economists, established business contacts, actively participated in scientific discussions and discussions, thus strengthening competences in marine economics research.

This trip to a foreign scientific conference was funded by a grant from the Research Council of Lithuania under the measure 09.3.3-LMT-K-712 “Researchers, other researchers, students. competence development through practical scientific activity ”.