AENIB sends a letter of support to the APB for the reorganization project of the Port of Palma

In a letter addressed to the Corporate Governance Department of the Balearic Port Authority, AENIB, as the Balearic nautical employer's association, thanks it for its courage in proposing this project which, from its perspective, is overdue. In the letter, AENIB recalls that this project is a historical claim of the nautical sector and notes that it is an initiative similar to the one carried out in the creation of the Son Castelló Industrial Estate 50 years ago.

AENIB emphasizes and positively values that the spaces gained will not be land extensions, but the result of relocation, and advocates for them to be allocated to public services, such as a municipal sailing school or the Nautical-Fishing Training School, which suffers from a lack of space to meet demand.

The Balearic nautical employer's association AENIB has sent a missive to the Corporate Governance Department of the Balearic Port Authority (APB) thanking it for its courage in proposing the reorganization of the Port of Palma and showing its support for a project that, from its viewpoint, is overdue...

This letter of support comes after the APB has initiated a round of discussions with representatives of the port community and other social, institutional, and economic agents in order to gain the maximum consensus on the reorganization of the Port.

Having recently been abandoned by the APB's Board of Directors, the reorganization proposal approved in 2020, the Port of Palma now takes on the objective of charting a new course to ensure at all times the maritime connectivity and the operability of the Balearic logistic chain. Additionally, to redistribute the industrial areas for boat repair and rebuild the seafront of Palma, yielding spaces to port-city integration projects.

In the letter, AENIB reminds that this project is a historical claim of the nautical sector. “Nautical companies in the Islands are losing contracts because there is no capacity to meet the demand of some clients, and they have to go to some better-equipped shipyards or facilities on the Peninsula, as well as other countries to carry out their projects,” the text emphasizes, signed by Jaume Vaquer, president of the Balearic nautical employers' association, who insists that it is “an initiative comparable to that carried out in Palma 50 years ago when the Son Castelló Industrial Estate was built to locate and place workshops, factories, and industrial activities, outside the city and have them concentrated and sectorized in an industrial space.”

Moreover, AENIB emphasizes and positively values that the spaces gained will not be extensions, but the result of relocation, and advocates for them to be allocated to public services, such as a municipal sailing school for training in nautical activities.

Finally, Vaquer trusts that this reorganization will be tackled as a state project where there are no political colors or contentless nuances that delay the project, as, in his opinion, there is no more time to waste in undertaking this project.