On the second day, at the convention center of the Westin Camino Real hotel in the capital, the event will involve all participants in the exchange of knowledge and experiences.
The day before, Foreign Minister Mario Búcaro presented the vision and perspectives in this area at the international level of the State of Guatemala.
At the inauguration, the President of the National Ports Commission, Omar Barrios, emphasized the importance of these issues in promoting sustainable growth, improving competitiveness and the economy.
The authority itself hosted a conference describing the sector and the opportunities it offers through public policy, legislation, governance and technologies.
The event featured a Chapín project aimed at countering intentional actions that could pose a threat to commercial operations in the seaport system, the first of its kind in Latin America.
The General Manager of Quetzal Port Company, Francisco Anleu, presented the master plan of this company and emphasized the goal of comprehensive infrastructure transformation.
This included modernizing the machinery, optimizing the administrative organization and improving the institutional management of the plant to make it a window to the world of possibilities.
The congress, with special guests from the World Maritime University, executives, analysts, operators, strategic partners and users, exhibits stands from all maritime companies in this Central American territory.
The most important in Guatemala are Puerto Quetzal in the municipality of San José in the Escuintla department on the Pacific coast and, on the Caribbean side, Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomás de Castilla in Izabal.
From 2020 to August last year, maritime trade brought the country $96,94.2 million, an increase of 27.7 percent compared to what was achieved between 2016 and 2019.
From 2012 to 2015, trade in imports and exports through the Barrios and Santo Tomás de Castilla y Quetzal docks amounted to $72,170.6 million, according to official data.
Guatemalan forecasts for the sector predict average annual growth of 5.5 percent between 2023 and 2027, based on data from the past 20 years.
Lam/Znc