Latin American Countries Need to Look Beyond Super Ports, Says Expert

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31 Oct 2011

Latin American countries need to look beyond the construction of increasingly large ports and focus on improving overall logistics infrastructure, Ricardo Sánchez, chief of the infrastructure

services unit at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, (Eclac) told BNamericas.
“Ports are clearly a need that is easy to identify. But we need to look beyond the construction of so-called super ports, as their construction triggers other needs inland. The region needs to work very hard to achieve that,” Sánchez said at the sidelines of the 2011 annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME).
Chile’s transport undersecretary Gloria Hutt said at the conference’s opening that improving transport logistics is one of the main challenges facing the country’s infrastructure development. Sánchez echoed Hutt’s statements, saying the same reality is applicable to the rest of the region.
“If we could wave a magic wand and build a ‘super port,’ that still isn’t enough without railroads, highways, and pipelines. [Also lacking is] the redistribution of cargo beyond ports, logistics centers and dry ports,” Sánchez said.
Latin America’s infrastructure investment will need to reach 5.2% of regional GDP – some US$170bn, based on 2000 exchange rates – to effectively supply infrastructure demand from 2006-2020, according to a recent study published by Eclac.
The IAME conference is being held this week at Eclac’s office in Santiago.
Source: BN Americas