After talking about the Economy of the Sea as a concept and about its economic potential for Portugal, Tiago Pitta e Cunha gave clues about opportunities not to be missed at sea and the importance of taking advantage of them for a country like ours. This is the second part of an interview conducted in partnership by the Sul Informação and by Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM, for the radio program CRIA FM, on the sidelines of the Encontro Mar Português, which took place last week, in Faro.
Hugo Rodrigues/Sul Informação Pedro Duarte/RUA FM
Cria FM – Last time he was at the University of Algarve, he drew attention to the fact that Portugal practically does not have a Merchant Marine. How do you explain this reality?
Tiago Pitta e Cunha – The part of maritime transport explains well how the political decision makers of this country were oblivious to the question of the sea. One of the reasons why our country must develop a strong productive base linked to the sea is because we are unique, but unique, in the sense that we are the only ones who have only one terrestrial neighbor. All others have more than one. This fact alone, in geopolitical terms, should be enough for us to take much more advantage of the sea, as, in fact, we had to do for many centuries, precisely because of this reality.
This would mean that, in order to respond to this geographical limitation – it is a gigantic constraint to have borders with only one country! -, we bet heavily on shipping. However, we in the last few decades have seen a decade of 100 percent of the merchant fleet in each decade. It was halved! This is relevant, because access to the sea means access to all other coastal states, which is a comparative advantage when it comes to placing our exports.
From the moment we give up on having a maritime transport fleet, we diminish our chances of controlling the logistics of our commercial exchanges. It is clear that a person does not have to have only the ships of his country to make these exchanges, but a coastal State must have, in economic and sovereignty terms, some option in the use of the sea. We abdicated her. This is important even from a national security perspective. If we think of the sea as a central part of a strategic concept of defense and national security, it is obvious that we must have access to other countries, we cannot limit ourselves to accessing just one.
Therefore, I would say that from an economic point of view, from a military point of view, in short, in all aspects, it was a real unconsciousness for a society to watch impassively and serenely in the dismantling of such an industry. Anyway, if we were Switzerland, which happens to have one of the biggest container companies in the world (laughs), but lives in the mountains, it would make sense. But for us it is paradoxical and this is what we have to start looking at.
C – The Panama Canal is currently being expanded to support super-cargoers. Isn't there an opportunity for Portugal here?
TPC-Portugal have been feeling peripheral, because the discourse that they have transmitted to us in the last 30 years is that we are a poor, small, peripheral country devoid of natural resources. None of this is necessarily true.
It is a fact that we are not a rich country, but neither do we have to be poor for the rest of our lives and the lives of generations to come. So let us know how to take advantage of the natural resources that we have and that are many, so let us understand that Portugal is not a small country, but medium in terms of territorial area on a European scale and overwhelmingly gigantic in maritime terms.
We are not peripherals either. We will be, if we think about the distance between Lisbon and Brussels. But if we think about the distance to the port of Santos, in Brazil, to Namibia, on the West African coast or to the Panama Canal, then we are much closer than any European capital.
And Sines has an advantage here! It is the European port that is closest to the mouth of the new Panama Canal, which will open in 2014. This canal will create a complete disruption in international trade flows, which in recent decades have all been conducted from East to West. Production is in the East. The point is that it has been transported through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, where there are soon a series of European ports that, in essence, pick up these goods.
Now the flow will work from West to East, through the Pacific and the Panama Canal. Here Portugal has a chance of becoming more relevant, more relevant, of being a port country. We can look at other European port countries, such as Belgium, which I mentioned earlier. The Port of Antwerp, surely one of the biggest European ports, is not the Port of Belgium. It is certainly the port of Benelux and, in part, also of a region of Germany and Milan. This is what could be the design of Sines.
C – The Economy of the Sea is also very linked to land. Wouldn't it be necessary to invest more in communication routes to and from Sines?
TPC – Sines has enormous strategic importance. If we look at the Sea and think of it as a resource, the first resource for us is geography, the coastline, the access to the sea and the maritime space. The latter is a resource in itself, meaning as a means of transporting goods. Maritime transport is increasing, road transport is going to decrease a lot in Europe due to environmental laws and the cost that will be charged to it. In this perspective, we must have a greater focus on both maritime transport and the railroad.
The railway connection from the Port of Sines to Spain and Europe is essential. And here I have to emphasize that the current Government's decision is a truly historic decision. I would say that, finally, there is a Government that looks at Portuguese geography. And, for me, replacing the TGV to transport people, no matter how fundamental they are in networking, with a line that in a country that is not rich has a dual use, which includes the transport of goods and connects Portuguese ports to the hinterland [ Iberian interior space], seems to me to be a fundamental measure, bearing in mind the geographical condition that we talked about at the beginning.
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