Antwerp Port Unveils 5 Priorities to Get Ready for the Future

Sustainable growth, mobility, transition, safety & security and operational excellence will be strategic priorities of Antwerp Port Authority in the next few years, the port authority revealed in its new business plan. 

“Our new Business Plan that aims to bring results in five strategic priorities gives us a sharper focus. We are convinced that we can turn this company around by concentrating on a number of clearly defined strategic priorities that will form our main action guidelines between now and 2020,” Jacques Vandermeiren, Antwerp Port Authority CEO, said.

“In today’s fast-changing world we aim to be a safe home port and act as a lever for all those who see opportunities and embrace challenge,” Vandermeiren continued.

“Our main advantages for this are our great adaptability and our strong focus on innovation and digitisation. We constantly strive for sustainable added value, while assuming our responsibility towards society,” he added.

The Antwerp industrial and logistics port platform is said to be the main economic engine for our country. One in 16 people in Flanders works in or for the port, and the platform directly or indirectly generates added value of EUR 21 billion annually. As one of the main links in trade between Europe and the rest of the world, the port platform occupies a central place in a world that is changing increasingly rapidly and becoming more and more unpredictable.

“We are working towards a sustainable future for the port. This ambition is expressed in our new mission and vision, in which our role is defined even more sharply. We are much more than a port landlord, an operator and a facilitator in the nautical chain: we are also a community builder. We challenge ourselves to be even closer to our employees, our customers and stakeholders,” according to Antwerp Port Authority CEO.

As explained, the five strategic priorities are to be translated into concrete projects.  The new Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO) department will support these projects and ensure they are carried out successfully.

“The Port Authority employees are the key to success in this transition phase. With our DELTa programme we challenge them to Dare, to Experiment, to Learn and to Trigger others. In this way, we will make the transition from a mainly operational to a knowledge-driven organisation.” Vandermeiren concluded.