Dimitris Spyrou: The port community system necessary tool for the port of Piraeus

In an interview with Maritimes. gr on the sidelines of the final presentation of the three European programs B2MOS, ANNA and WIDERMOS in Greece last week Piraeus Port Authority Administration Director Dimitris Spyrou talked about the new horizons opening up for shipping and how can Piraeus benefit from the further modernization of procedures.

-The objective is to complete the logistics chain from the primary producer to the final recipient using multimodal procedures, meaning transport via truck, ship, train.

Particularly regarding these three complementary to each other programs we are presenting in this final conference, the B2MOS in which Piraeus port participates comes to realize prototypes through which we create transparent procedures in the transportation of goods from the primary producer to the final recipient through the port community systems available in ports.

ANNA aims to help port authorities support the procedures for the implementation of the national single window that is an EU directive which should be implemented in coming years.
The WIDERMOS is a complementary project through which all these procedures and transport of goods between the parties concerned are completed.

-In which stage do we stand now? Are there any tangible results? And which could be the benefits from these programs?

-In PPA we started implementing respective prototypes and pilot actions in the framework of the MOS for MOS project launched in 2010 for a year through which we created an initial infrastructure and a platform in the context of a port community system.B2MOS is a follow up of the previous project on which we set up applications and launched procedures to simplify the process.So we took a step further.We put in our own system applications and procedures. What remains to be seen is whether member states can now finance from their own resources a more practical implementation of these systems to make full use of procedures already initiated and implemented on a pilot level.

-Obviously this requires communication within European partners. Is there any cooperation with other neighboring ports?

-We have proved through these applications that it is possible to have a direct implementation and cooperation. I have the feeling that this kind of cooperation on a commercial level has not gone so far, because there is competition between ports. Behind ports are companies that hardly sit at a table to open their cards and cooperate directly, because they always have concern over a possible leak of significant data.

-What does Piraeus have to gain from the development of these programs?

-My experience in these processes has shown that the target for the port of Piraeus is to implement a port community system which should be essentially integrated into the national single window which is the European Directive for all member states. I believe that a port community system is today necessary for the port of Piraeus. All busy ports across Europe have port community systems to ensure transparency, speed and reduce workload.

For example under the port community system the agent will no longer need to present all required documents to each company concerned. The agent could upload the necessary documents on the port community system and the system will send them to all services where needed. Therefore, bureaucracy is reduced, one can save packs of paper used for printing today, and can gain in transparency, as statistics showing the mobility of goods, origin, destination etc are available in no time.

So this is a useful tool that the port of Piraeus community is lacking today and in my opinion is necessary. The port authorities of Marseille, Valencia, Barcelona and Genoa have such systems at their disposal. As a very large port, most notably in the eastern Mediterranean, Piraeus should proceed with a first step. I think that the programs we are implementing mark the start for such actions.

-The PPA has vast experience in developing such European programs.

-This is true.We have many years of involvement and very large experience in the implementation of such European programs. And I should stress that our involvement and management have been very successful. We have achieved high absorbency rates and the results are always tangible and exploitable. It is of course in the company’s strategy to be able to exploit these initiatives in a more practical level.