Valencia – 21.06.19. This morning the 15th anniversary celebration of the Fundación Valenciaport took place, bringing together more than 100 representatives of institutions and companies from the logistics-port community.
During the opening ceremony, the President of the Port Authority of Valencia and of the Fundación Valenciaport, Aurelio Martínez, stated that “The Fundación Valenciaport has far exceeded the expectations raised in 2004 when it was created”. According to Martínez, the objectives of creating an instrument to channel and promote R+D+i in the port logistics sector and at the same time offer specialised training of quality and updated content have been amply fulfilled. The President also stated that thanks to projects led by the Fundación Valenciaport “we are pioneers in a wide range of highly topical and future-oriented subjects such as environmental sustainability and energy transition, supporting the introduction of alternative fuels (LNG, Hydrogen), or promoting the development of the circular economy in the port area; or the digitalisation of our activity, promoting the development of new technologies such as blockchain, the internet of things or artificial intelligence applied to logistics processes”. Martínez ended his speech by encouraging the members of the logistics-port community to “make the most of this powerful tool to facilitate the competitiveness of our companies, and consolidate Valencia as the reference port in the Mediterranean for innovation and knowledge”.
Next, the guest speaker, Mare Straetmans, Director of Digital Transformation of the Van Oord firm and former Director of Innovation of the Port of Rotterdam and General Manager of PortXL, the accelerator of startups linked to the port, spoke about his experience in innovation in the port logistics sector. According to Straetmans “the changing world around us impacts our business every day. Major issues such as climate change, digitalisation and energy transition are affecting all port and maritime ecosystems around the world”. During his time at the Port of Rotterdam he greatly encouraged innovation and the creation of new businesses, with examples such as 3D printing of ship parts, a large space for inventors and a venture capital fund dedicated to the creation of maritime companies. As founder and former CEO of PortXL, Mare Straetmans built the first and only global start-up programme in the maritime port sector. With this program she supported new maritime companies around the world in building their businesses and made it easier for large companies to find new technologies to innovate in their business. In addition, Straetmans stressed that “many large companies in the maritime sector are not sufficiently involved in new technologies”. These technologies offer a great business opportunity. Turning this opportunity into real business value requires that large organizations master the ability to quickly validate and test new technologies and then implement them in the enterprise.
Next, the General Director of the Fundación Valenciaport, Antonio Torregrosa, reviewed the milestones achieved by the entity in its 15 years of existence and the powerful figures that support the work carried out by its team. Torregrosa highlighted the 259 projects developed during this period in which the following have been implemented: 10 databases and simulators; 27 industrial prototypes and 15 industrial solutions; 10 hardware solutions and 98 software solutions for management and planning. In addition, the director highlighted the 93.1 million euro budget for innovation projects carried out by companies in the cluster with a subsidy from the Fundación Valenciaport, in addition to the 43.3 million euro in funds obtained for innovation projects carried out by the entity itself. On the other hand, Torregrosa has highlighted the excellent work developed by the training area with the 539 courses offered in this period and the 14,893 students who have passed through its classrooms. Finally, the director announced that the Strategic Plan Fundación Valenciaport 2025 will be published at the end of 2019 with the aim of consolidating the entity as a reference centre in innovation and training for the Valenciaport port cluster.
At the end of the event, all those attending received a copy of the Fundación Valenciaport’s 2017-2018 Annual Report, which details all the activities undertaken over the last two years.
