Preveza Chamber organized successfully on Monday 5th of December 2022 in his premises, the Capitalisation Workshop for the results of the cross-border project: “FRESH WAYS – Crossborder Mechanism for Greek Intermodal and Multimodal Transport of Fresh Products”, funded by the Interreg V/A Greece-Italy 2014-20 Programme.
The workshop was attended by representatives of the project partnership, as well as by many stakeholders, such as the Region of Epirus, ETVA VI.PE. S.A., the Hellenic Transport Chamber Business Association, by many members of the Board of Directors of Preveza Chamber and by local logistic companies.
The workshop began with the welcome speech of the President of Preveza Chamber, Mr Ioannis Bouris, who pointed out the important role of the agri-food sector in the specific territory, and emphasized the great interest of the Chamber for the creation of agri-food logistic infrastructures within the Industrial Area of Preveza, which is located right on the road axis that connects the Aktion Airport with the Port of Igoumenitsa, giving the possibility for the development of multimodal transports. For this reason, the Chamber requested and subsequently approved the elaboration of a specific Business Plan for the creation of an Agri-Food Logistic Center in the Area, in the framework of the FRESH WAYS project.
In the same line, the Vice-Regional Governor for Environment, Development and Trade of the Epirus Region Athority, Mr. Vassilios Gorgolis, expressed the warm support of the Region to relevant initiatives.
Next, Mr Mario Pertile, Manager of Special Projects from Puglia Airports, presented the FRESH WAYS project aiming to optimize existing passengers’ air routes to ship fresh products in the aircraft holds along with passengers’ transport between Italy and Greece.
The keynote speaker of the event, Prof. Dimitrios Vlachos, Director of the Laboratory of Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LASCM) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), took the floor immediately after, analyzing the opportunities for further development of multimodal transports in the joint GREECE-ITALY cross-border area.
Afterwards, the scientific experts of the Universities of Patras and Salento, Ms Panagiota Saranti and Mr Gianvito Mitrano, presented in detail the ICT platform developed in the framework of the FRESH WAYS project aiming at supporting the distribution of fresh agri-food products using combined transport means.
Finally, Mrs Eirini Sylleli, expert from EURICON Consultants Company presented on behalf of the Chamber of Preveza, specific proposals – guidelines for the further exploitation and capitalization of the FRESH WAYS project’s results, after the end of his life-cycle.
After a round of discussions, all the participants agreed that the results of the FRESH WAYS project, such as the developed ICT platform which supports combined freight transports, the freight infrastructures created inside Bari Airport, but also the corresponding infrastructures that are being studied inside Industrial Area of Preveza, are valuable tools for strengthening the freight transports within the common GREECE-ITALY cross-border region, as well as for the economic development of the specific regions.
Finally, after the end of the Workshop, a study visit of the participants was carried out to the Airport of Aktion, where the common interest of the 2 Airports of Apulia and Aktion for the development of joint collaborations was expressed, but also to 3 representative local Agri-Food – Logistic Companies that are based within the Industrial Area of Preveza and demonstrate high dynamism and interest for cross-border cooperation.
The Capitalisation Workshop at Preveza Chamber is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qIKnZ1x6g
